Craigslist find into upholstered ottoman.

I found this coffee table on craigslist for $15. When I came to buy the table the lady was totally worried about the paint mess on top from her kids. I replied quickly, "Don't worry about that, I am going to cover it up and totally change it!" I could see her thoughts go quickly to, "what do you mean.... you are going to cover up my children's creative memories?" But...sorry lady thats the DIY and up-cycle way, its just craigslist business. She was reluctant to sell me anything else from her piled high basement. Well, except for a child desk for $12 which my daughter and I will be working on in the summer.

Here is a picture of the before:

After just a few hours, I sanded the snot out of that thing, painted it black, distressed it, padded it, then upholstered it with a wool-feeling check fabric, changed the hardware and now you have it....

Ta-da:

The secret to pulling this up cycle off the cheapest way possible is the foam insert. You can pay upwards of $70 a yard for high density foam at a fabric store. Def not my thing to pay that much for foam. My bright idea was to go to Walmart and pick up these... a foam mattress pad for $15.  Remember these mattress pads? We used these before the memory foam revolution. I just doubled it and then used a batting on top then the fabric.