Nifty Denim DIY Ottoman Crate with Storage an Ikea Hack

Personalized DIY Ottoman Using Jeans and a Wooden Crate

I’m always looking for a bit more storage and extra seating in my home. With this rustic denim DIY ottoman, I think I have a solution.
 
I love how practical and nifty this DIY ottoman is. When unexpected guests turn up it provides both seating and somewhere to quickly hide clutter.
 
The casters also make it really easy to move. Watch it, if you have wooden floors like me the kids (big kids too) will end up riding it around the house. The wheels are really nippy.
 
You know what else is great about the ottoman, it’s that it’s upholstered with my old jeans and I have stenciled the family name to the great to give it the personal touch.
 

 
 
If you follow Pillar Box Blue, you will know I have a thing about denim, maps, and Ikea hacks. Well, this DIY ottoman project covers two of those bases; the upcycled denim and Ikea hack. I suppose if I used it to store my maps then it would cover all three.

 

 
 
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What you need to make an upcycled DIY ottoman crate

• Wooden Crate – Did I mention this was an Ikea Hack? It is, in that I used an IKEA KNAGGLIG box
• IKEA RILL casters
• Dark wood wax
• Letter/number stencils 2″ high
• Sharpie Pen

For the upholstered lid..

• Old pair of Jeans
• Scrap fabric same size as the the lid

Fabric glue

• Chipboard/plywood big enough to fit the top of the crate. Plus some scraps of wood for batons approx 2″ x 2″ and 12″ long.
• Upholstery foam for the top approx 2″ thick
• Spray adhesive
• Batting/wadding
• Staple gun

How to make a denim DIY Ottoman crate

1. First, assemble your Ikea crate according to the instructions
    
2. Stencil the sides of the crate. This is so easy, I used a plastic letter stencil and a sharpie for this. You can really personalize the ottoman by stenciling someone’s name on the crate. Our family name is Armstrong so I decided to stencil that on my crate.
    
   Just make sure you stencil the right way up, you may think that is obvious but I still manage to stencil things upside down at times.
    
   
    

 

3. The wood on the Ikea Knagglig crate is untreated. To protect the wood and to give it a more rustic and aged look, I rubbed the whole crate, inside and out with some dark furniture wax.

    
   

    

 

4. Screw the casters to the base of the ottoman, you will need very short wood screws for this.
    
   
    

 

The upholstered lid..

5. To transform your lovely stenciled crate on wheels into a useful ottoman you will need to add a lid. Firstly cut a piece of plywood to the size of the top of your crate. At the same time saw 2 batons of wood about 1″ shorter than the width of your lid.
    
   
    

 

6. Using the plywood lid as a guide, cut a piece of foam the same size and stick it to the lid using a spray adhesive.
    
   
    

 

7. Cut the batting/wadding so that it is large enough to wrap around the foam and staple it to the underside of the lid using a staple gun.
    
   
    
    
8. Cut the waistband off the jeans and cut off one leg. If you split the leg open down the seam, there should be enough denim to cover the ottoman lid, if not then cut open the other leg and sew them together.

 


 
 

9. Wrap the large piece of denim around the batting and staple gun to the underside of the plywood. The waistband of the jeans was glued to outside edge of the ottoman lid (pin whilst the glue dries to help it stick). This little touch to me adds more interest and character to the ottoman.
    
   Depending on the size of your jeans you may need 2 jeans waistbands to go around the ottoman.
    
   
    

 

10. I used a scrap piece of fabric to tidy up the underside of the DIY ottoman lid. To ensure good adhesion, the fabric was pinned to the lid whilst the glue was drying.
     
    
     

 

11. Finally to ensure that your lid doesn’t slide around, screw in 2 or 3 batons to the underside.

     
    
     

The finished DIY Ottoman..

The denim and the stenciling give the ottoman a rustic industrial feel. I love it in my lounge but it would look great in a teen bedroom or man cave. It can be personalized by stenciling a name and year onto the wooden crate. Also I find the storage bit under the lid really handy for magazines and general clutter when I want a quick tidy up.
 

 
 

 

 
 
If you want to see more crate ideas you should check out my DIY nightstand from a wine box.. If you like the denim then might should see my most popular post, which is my great denim pocket organiser.
 
For more home diy ideas don’t forget to check out the diyideacenter.