Recycling Furniture

Often furniture we already have or that we can purchase inexpensively 2nd hand can be used in different ways.  We can save lots of money by seeing things not as they are, but as they could be. Genreally speaking, the key is to pay attention to line, shape, and form, and not allow things like colour and texture, which can easily be changed throw us off.

When I first met with my client about her large, open-concept basement, she considered the furniture that she already had to be little more than junk.  It was purchased inexpensively at a garage sale, or had been passed down to her, and had endured several years of abuse from her children.  Certainly in it's present condition, it was not very appealing.

My client wanted to save as much money as possible transforming her basement and was willing to take some risks with her old furniture to see if it could be re-used in different ways.  With that in mind, we went to work!

The easiest transformations were with these two pieces of furniture that she already had:

By simply painting them both black, and giving each a distinct purpose we made them look like they belonged together in the same space:

Next came a couple of wing-backed chairs, purchased inexpensively at a 2nd-hand store.  Sure the colours were all wrong, but the shapes and lines were perfect!

 We went to work re-upholstering them in a fabric of my client's choosing and came out with a matching set,

 transforming what was formerly an awkward to use waste of space:

 into a great new reading area:

 The most ambitious challenge we took on was transforming my client's old, worn couch and loveseat into a sectional couch as called for by the design: 

 What made this possible was the straight lines, rectangular shape, block-like forms, and sturdy frames of these particular pieces of furniture:

 We simply peeled back the fabric and foam from the left arm of the love seat:

and removed the wood frame of the arm, leaving the rest of the love-seat's frame intact:

 Then we simply moved the two pieces together in the correct formation:

The design called for several small and colourful throw pillows to be placed on the couch. My client decided that she wanted to replace the furniture's existing back pillows with a solid back padding piece cut from an inexpensive foam mattress, thus cutting down on the number of loose pillows to arrange.

If we were to re-upholster this new formation, it would look like a brand new couch - however my client opted to go with a slip-cover which could be easily removed, washed, and replaced - a way to make a white couch a little more practical with 4 kids!  She went to work and sewed it herself!

 My client was able to save thousands of dollars just by being willing to think outside of the box and use old furniture in new ways!

DIY Recycled Storage Ottoman

Storage ottomans are fantasticly functional pieces of furniture.  Here's a way to save some money by making your own:

Materials & Tools:

- Old ottoman (purchased from 2nd hand store)

- Enough fabric of your choosing to re-cover the outside of the ottoman

- Black fabric to line the interior of the ottoman

- Plywood
- Screws
- 2 med-duty hinges

- Drill

- Screwdriver
- Staple-gun
- Sewing machine

1) Purchase an inexpensive ottoman from a 2nd hand store with a sturdy frame (doesn't really matter what the outside looks like).  Remove the legs and set aside.

2) Proceed with the first couple steps of basic upholstering: starting from the bottom, remove the staples from the fabric and furniture and remove the fabric covering - taking careful note of how you pull it off (because you're going to put the new fabric back on in more or less the same way.)

3) Remove top padding, and top covering - revealing the empty inside of the ottoman:

4) Measure the length and width of the bottom of your ottoman.  Cut plywood to fit.  (The thickness of your plywood will depend on how strong you want the floor of your ottoman's interior to be, and also what kind of legs you have for your ottoman.  In this case, my legs had fairly short screws, so I needed my plywood to be strong as possible, but also slim, so I chose to go with 1/4" hardboard.)  Position your piece of plywood on the bottom of your ottoman, mark and drill holes of appropriate size to fit your legs.

Screw legs into position to make sure everything fits, make adjustments if necessary.

5) Using legs to hold plywood in place, drill holes around the outside perimeter of the plywood, and secure to ottoman frame with screws.

6) Remove legs once again and set aside. Proceed to upholster the main body of the ottoman, by separating the pieces of the old fabric at the seams, ironing them out, and then using the old pieces of fabric as a pattern from which to cut out your new fabric. You may need to extend the new fabric at the top by a few inches to ensure that you will have enough to wrap around into the inside top opening of the ottoman frame (because it will no longer be connected to the top padding in order to allow the ottoman to open and close). Sew the pieces of new fabric together in the same way the old fabric covering was (leaving out the pieces connected to the top padding), place on ottoman body and secure with staples on bottom, and inside the top opening of the ottoman frame.

7) Replace bottom covering and legs.

8) Measure the length and width of the top padding of your ottoman.  Cut a piece of plywood slightly smaller than your measurements.  You may also need to trim back the corners of your plywood slightly on an angle if your top padding does not have perfectly square corners.  

9) Separate pieces of old fabric covering from the top padding cover of the ottoman at the seams.  Iron out pieces and trace onto new fabric.  Cut out new fabric pieces (you may need to leave a couple of extra inches at the bottom edge to help secure padding to plywood.) and sew back together in the same manner as the old covering.

10) Place top padding into new fabric covering.  Place cut piece of plywood on top, and tightly secure the fabric around the perimeter of the plywood to the plywood with staples.

  

 

11) Cut a piece of black lining fabric and stable to bottom of ottoman top to cover plywood and fabric edges.

12) Measure length and height of each of the interior walls and floor of the ottoman, adding enough for seams.  Cut out pieces of black lining fabric in accordance with your measurements and sew a case lining for the interior of your ottoman.  Place inside of ottoman and secure to ottoman frame around upper and lower perimeters with staples.

13) Position and secure hinges with screws to outside edge of ottoman lid (on the plywood).  Position and secure remaining side of hinges to ottoman box frame with screws, checking to make sure that lid will fit correctly on the ottoman box when closed, adjust if necessary (You may need someone to hold the ottoman lid for you while you do this).

Enjoy!

Projects Update

I apologize for the recent lack of new posts! I have not disappeared, things have been just a little busy around here lately! Here are some projects that I currently have in production:

Master Bedroom:

Teen Boy Bedroom:

Craft Room (contest winner):

Dining Room:

Living-Room:

Play Area:

I also have a home office, living-room, massge room, and home gym still in design stages!  I look forward to sharing some great posts and DIY tips with you as these rooms progress from drawing to reality!

In the meantime, here are some pictures from the finished French-Inspired master bedroom I was working on previously:

Stay tuned!