Project Franken-Ottoman

Having the unique personality that I do, one day out of the blue, I ask my lovely wife "You like storage, right?"  She replied, "Umm...sure?"  I proceeded to share my lightbulb-went-off-in-the-head idea of turning our lovely new ottoman into a chest of sorts.  She immediately replied, "No way - don't you touch it". As much as I tried over the next few weeks, I couldn't get her to go along with my great idea of cannibalizing our new ottoman - making it work for us to obscure the some of clutter of our living room.  Now, mind you being the mechanically inclined person that I am, some of the propositions involved me describing how a hydraulically actuated lid on the ottoman that goes "pshhhhht" when it opens probably didn't help my case (like this). 

One day while my wife was working the weekend, I decided it was time.

Step 1 - Carry the ottoman to the shop (muwhahaha)

Step 2 - Cut the top of the ottoman apart from the bottom.  OK...i'll admit it was a little hard for me to take a razor blade to the new ottoman.

Step 3 - I discovered the interior of the ottoman was built out of junk wood and crappy hardware.  This was reinforced by the fact that they used 3 different types of screws to assemble it - all different lengths and sizes...very puzzling.

Step 4 - I added some reinforcing ribs across the bottom using pocket screws and glue to carry the load of the future contents of the ottoman.

 

At this point, my tired wife returned from work - only to find the ottoman in the shop.  I think at this point, she still didn't share my vision.  Maybe a little bit?  No!

Step 5 - I cut a bottom panel out of 1/4" Masonite wood.

Step 6 - The top of the ottoman was basically a fully enclosed piece of foam, wrapped in fabric.  I cut a piece of 3/8" plywood slightly smaller than the cushion.  To attach the cushion to the plywood, I spread out construction adhesive with a notched trowel.  Then, with the wood facing up, I put on a few bags of water softener salt for weight and let it dry overnight.

Step 7 - I had some leftover cedar closet planking, which I had been saving and finally had a use for!  I cut it and nailed it to the outside perimeter of the frame.  I made sure to stuff the cut edge of the fabric behind the cedar to both hold it and give it a clean look when the lid is opened.  At the corners, I created a 45 degree detail to hide the reinforcing blocks seen in the Step 5 picture.  

Step 8 - To mount the lid to the base, I used a continuous hinge.  I had to add a reinforcing strip to give a little more meat for the hinge to attach to.  I later covered this with a matching cedar piece to blend in.

Step 9 - I added a lid support device so that when you prop the lid open it stays there.

Here is the finished product.   I think it turned out great, and offers a suprising amount of storage for blankets, gaming parafanalia, my wife's crocheting projects, magazines, etc.

Thanks for reading,

Dan