I'm Packin' Heat

I just finished using a gun.  Okay it was only a staple gun, but for me, that should have been danger enough for one day.  However, as I keep telling my kids (to annoy them), I like to live on the edge!  So I also used a knife.  The kind with the razor blade slide thingy, oh, wait, I just looked it up - apparently that is called a "utility knife".  Very fancy. 

Anyway, last week I started thinking about reupholstering  my ottoman, and couldn't find any of my staple guns.  After several false starts at many different projects, I never did find my staple gun(s), and I basically got nothing accomplished.  Finally, Big A came to my rescue and found a very old rusty staple gun in the bottom of one of his big tool chests. I decided I had better at least finish the ottoman and get one thing done this week.

Here was the problem with the old ottoman:





All four corners have split and although I have sewn the edges back together before, years of the "little darlings" jumping on the furniture, has not helped my cause.  So now it's definitely time to either re-cover the thing or buy a new one.  At this point in time, I'd rather cover it than spend the money, but we'll see how it looks after the restoration!

Taking a good look at the ottoman, I realize that it's not in terrible condition structurally, and, I really am too lazy to don't even need to take off the old fabric.

First, I unscrewed the legs, which took all of about 23 seconds:



Then, using the utility knife, I plucked the buttons off of the top of the ottoman - another 17 seconds.  This is my kind of work!  I laid out the fabric, wrong side up, which is a leather-like  material (sounds so much better than pleather).  And then plopped the ottomon in the center, upside down.



I made sure the edges wrapped up and around the ottoman, with about 3" spare on the underside.  I pulled the fabric taught, and started stapling all the way around, keeping it tight.  After I got staples around all four sides, I went back and filled in with staples, about 2 inches apart.



When I got to the corners, I spent what seemed like several hours (in reality was 10 minutes) trying to get the "pleats" to look nice. With limited patience, here is what I said to myself: "Oh for goodness sake, just staple the dang thang and get this over with!".  And so I did.   I used the handy utility knife to cut the excess fabric, and I screwed the legs back on.  Presto!

 



I have to say the pleats may drive me to distraction.  But after spending only an hour of my time and zero of my money, I think I'll try to live with pleats, rather than rips for a couple of weeks, and see how it goes!