I bought an old wash tub a few years back with
great intentions to do something amazing with it. I moved it around the
studio a lot and it finally wound up in my back room. A good customer of
mine came in for a visit and was saying what a hard time she was having
trying to find an ottoman. A light went on and I showed her the wash
tub and said I could "try" turning it into an ottoman for her. She
immediately went to the fabric store and bought the fabric and came
back.
I was stepping way out of my comfort
zone on this one as I am not a wood worker or carpenter. I also have
very limited tools to make items. To start I needed to know the height
requirement. You don't want your feet too high or too low when you are
sitting so she called home to get the measurement of the height from the
floor to the top of the seat of the chair the ottoman would be used
with. The wheels added some height and the foam would be thick to add
the remaining height needed. A local fabric store cut two pieces of
foam to the square size and glued them together to get the correct
thickness.
The top piece will consist of two
pieces of wood, one cut to the same size as the outer edge of the wash
tub and the other board cut to the inner edge of the wash tub. Both
boards were glued together to act as a snug lid that could be removed.
The foam was placed on top then and trimmed with a steak knife to the
correct shape, a thin layer of batting then the fabric over it all.
Using a staple gun I secured the fabric to the bottom side of the top
board and then trimmed off any excess fabric. I finished the top with
black decorative nails along the edge of the fabric on the upper board.
There was some rusting and very small
holes in the bottom of the tub so I sprayed the interior with black
rubber for rocker panels.
The wheels were attached with small
bolts through holes I drilled in the bottom of the tub. I used two
regular wheels and two with brakes. You don't want your ottoman rolling
away on you.
I managed to do it. A little
ingenuity/creativity and determination can go a long way. I thank my
customer for putting her faith in me to do this.
Nancy Spencer Carlson states (about no occurrence of puckering)...
It is all about pulling the fabric really tight and working from the
centre out when stapling. Imagine a square in front of you. You do 2
staple in
the centre on the side furthest away
from you then two on the side closest to you then 2 more in the centre
to the left and then the right and you keep working that way towards the
corners all the while pulling the fabric as tight as you can. The
puckers and folds should only occur once you are at the corners and the
puckers should be underneath where you can't see them.
