DIY Upholstered Storage Ottoman

Do you know you can make your very own DIY upholstered Storage Ottoman with a few basic tools and simple upholstery? Here is the tutorial!

PIN THIS TO PINTEREST

An upholstered storage ottoman is one of the most functional multipurpose pieces of furniture for the living room.

• It makes a great coffee table (with a tray to provide a flat surface)
• It makes a great footstool to put your feet up.
• The storage is perfect for games or the blankets.
• They make great accent furniture – it is easy to bring in color and pattern to the decor.

Building an ottoman with storage is actually super easy and quick!

We have been on the hunt for the perfect ottoman for a while now.

A couple of years ago I had upholstered an old coffee table from Ikea that we used as an ottoman.

It was finally time to get something that was more functional.

I wanted a nice ottoman that would have the perfect amount of storage. Take a look at some of my favorites. Unfortunately, most fell short of the cuteness factor… I wanted a nice pop of color and pattern!

Obviously, I took things in my own hands and built the perfect piece!

Now, along with the awesome spot to put our feet up, we have a spot to keep all the blankets and games.

Plus, I am obsessed with this print!

RELATED: 20 Creative DIY storage ottoman ideas

***This post contains referral or affiliate links. It is a way for this site to earn advertising fees by advertising or linking to certain products and/or services.  Please read my full disclosure here ***

PIN THIS TO PINTEREST

How to Build the DIY Ottoman

The ottoman I built is 36″ x 22″ and approximately 14.5″ high and the plans reflect the same. You can modify the dimensions as needed.

The ottoman is made in two major steps –

1. Building the storage ottoman box, and
2. Upholstering the entire box

Step 1: Make the Cuts

• Make all the cuts per the plans. The cuts are pretty straightforward and can be easily made using a circular saw or a miter saw.
• Sand all the boards to prepare them for assembly.
• Make the pocket holes as per the plans in the side pieces.

The pocket holes are made with the jig and depth collar set at 3/4″ setting. See more about how to use a pocket hole jig here.

Step 2: Assemble the Box.

• Attach the 2×2 boards to the aprons to make the sides using wood glue and 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws.

You can also use countersunk wood screws from the sides if you do not have a Kreg Jig.

• Attach the long sides using wood glue and 1 1/4″ pocket hole screws to complete building the box.

• On the underside, cut out the leg and attach a 1/4″ sheet of plywood using wood glue and finish nails or staples.
  I used hardboard since I already had some .

I had painted the legs of my Karlstad couches with Oil rubbed bronze spray paint. So, I painted the legs of this ottoman to match that!

You can also stain them if you like

You can see, I didn’t even bother taping off the box because all of this would eventually get covered by fabric.

And that’s the box.

The top isn’t attached. It’s just a piece of plywood sitting on top of the box.

Time to upholster!

Step 3: Upholster the Outside of the Box

• Wrap the frame in batting. Staple the batting around the frame. (Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of this step.)
• Follow that with the outer fabric. 

Where the upholstery fabric ends, I just created an overlap and folded in the raw edge of the fabric.

I glued that raw edge using fabric glue.

 It’s hard to even see the seam.

PIN THIS TO PINTEREST

Step 4: Add the Liner

• Cut the inner lining fabric to size – making allowance for the sidewalls and some extra to fold in.
• Spray the inside of the frame with spray adhesive.

• Smooth the liner fabric along the inner storage box. On the corners, I folded the extra fabric inside, like we do in a gift wrap.

• Fold in the raw edge of the liner fabric and staple along the edges. The bottom storage box is ready.

Step 5: Upholster the Top

• Lay a piece of foam cut about 1/4″ larger than the top plywood on all sides. You can optionally attach this to the top using a spray adhesive.
• Layer polyfill on top of the foam – in my case it was filling from old pillows (don’t worry – I washed them beforehand)
• Wrap it with batting and staple on the bottom.

• Cover the top with the outer fabric and staple it to one of the long sides.

Step 6: Add Tufting (Optional.)

• Put together the fabric covered buttons per directions on the package. 
• To tuft, I pretty much followed this awesome tutorial on how to do this. Once the tufting is done, staple the fabric all around the top.

Step 7: Finish the Top

• Cover the back of the top with liner material. I did a double layer since a single layer was not opaque enough. Fold in the raw edge and staple it to the sides.

Step 8: Attach to the Box.

•  Attach the top to the storage frame using the piano hinge. 
• Attach the toy box lid support hinges. Ideally, these should be attached on either side of the piano hinge.

I started with attaching one in the middle but realized it was not enough to hold the weight, so I ended up adding another one next to it.

Ideally, they would be on both ends of the lid.

And we are done!

PIN THIS TO PINTEREST

It was a little bit of a long process but totally worth it!

It is exactly what I was looking for.

I am in love with the fabric pattern. It brings much-needed pattern and color to the living room.

I took a long long time to pick this fabric… I looked everywhere!

Finally, when I saw this, I couldn’t get it out of mind and no matter which design I saw, I just kept coming back to this.

I was afraid it might be a bit too busy, but it actually adds the perfect amount of color and pattern next to my plain couches.

AND it has the perfect amount of storage space too!

What do you think? Have you built a storage ottoman?

PIN THIS TO PINTEREST

More Project Ideas You Like –

More Storage Ottomans –

• Top 10 DIY storage ottamans
• Ottomans and Storage Cubes