Hacking the Lack into an upholstered ottoman

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Materials: Lack Coffee Table

Description: I had an old Lack coffee table but I really wanted an upholstered ottoman. Since it was the right size, I just decided to see if I could turn what I had into what I wanted. I knew I wanted mine to be thick, so I waited until the 5″ foam batting was on sale at JoAnns. If I remember correctly it was about 75 dollars a yard, and I needed two yards. I got it for 50% off, so for my two yards it was about 75 dollars. I already had the upholstery fabric on hand, so I just needed to pick up a little quilt batting, an upholstery needle, upholstery thread, and some buttons I could cover with the fabric.

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I unscrewed the legs and then cut my foam, fabric and quilt batting to size. (The foam needs to be the exact same dimensions as the top of the table, but the fabric and batting need to be big enough to cover the top of the table, the sides of the foam and table and still attach under the table by at least an inch.

I just laid it all down on the floor and eyeballed it. After cutting the foam to the right size (using a serrated knife) I used spray adhesive to attach it to the top of the Lack. Then I laid my fabric down on the floor with the quilt batting on top of it, and then laid my table top (with foam attached)upside down on the quilt batting. From here I used a drill bit to drill holes where I wanted my tufting buttons to go…be sure your drill goes at least all the way through both the top and bottom of the Lack tabletop.

Next I used my staple gun, I pulled the fabric taught and stapled it on all sides, folding the corners like you would a bed sheet. Now comes the hard part: using upholstery thread you have to thread the needle up through both holes you made with the drill (the top and bottom of the tabletop of the Lack) and up through the foam and fabric. I used a 12″ upholstery needle to get all the way through all the pieces. It was challenging getting the needle back down through the same holes, but trial and error got it done! To keep the thread from going back through the hole, I attached a small rolled up piece of fabric through the thread and then pulled it taught on the bottom side to make the button more ‘tufted’.

After that I took the legs out to the garage to cut them down a bit (the 5″ foam batting made the ottoman too tall for my couch!) and then reattached them to finish off my hack!

See more of the Lack ottoman.

~ Marynell Jones, United States