I’m excited to tell you about my recently completed project, a wonderful addition to my livingroom!
However, before I do that, I would like to introduce you to Interior Designer Elizabeth Hay because it was her hexagon shaped ottoman in her cottage in Devon, England that made me want a unique shaped ottoman for my living room.
I have been following Elizabeth Hay’s work for a couple of years. She has lived in Singapore since 2013, but her work is influenced from her growing up in Kenya, England, and the United States. Her design esthetic was influenced by both her grandmothers — her maternal grandmother in Nairobi influenced her approach to interior design and her Scottish paternal grandmother, who was a former supermodel and muse of Christian Dior, introduced her to style and art.
I learned about Elizabeth’s work after stumbling upon photos of her English countryside cottage. I love British design and have poured over pictures and articles of British interiors for years.
I was enamoured after seeing Elizabeth’s cottage; it is so colourful and full of pattern, and I love the painted bobbin furniture throughout. If you follow interior design you will know that colour, pattern mixing, wallpaper, all these things are “trending” right now, but they are not trends — this design esthetic has been around for hundreds of years and I, for one, am very happy it’s popular again.
Here is a quote from Elizabeth’s website that captures the essence of her style. I encourage you to visit her website to see her beautiful, colourful interiors!
“Elizabeth Hay offers interiors for those who want their homes to sing with individuality; placing emphasis on layering colour and pattern, quality and timelessness.”
This picture was used in my last blog post where I talked about the furniture I would be working on this winter.
I’m sharing the picture again because as I mentioned above, her ottoman was the inspiration for what I wanted in my home. Because my carpentry skills are non existant I knew I wouldn’t be building one myself, however I am pretty good at having an eye for repurposing and upcycling, so after finding a hexagon shaped coffee table that was destined for landfill I knew I could get the look I was after.
And now I am happy to say it is completed! My living room certainly doesn’t have the colour that the above photo has, but I plan on changing that soon. My pictured yellow slipper chairs that I recently acquired will be getting a vibrant makeover this year and I have plans to paint this room and make it sing.
Upholstering this table was not a difficult project. Anyone with the proper tools and supplies can do it. To prepare the table for painting I washed it down a few times, roughed up the wood with sandpaper, put a coat of primer on it and then a couple of coats of paint (Benjamin Moore Woodlawn Blue).
Honestly, just these steps tansformed the table from ugly to pretty and I could have easily used it this way, but the whole idea was to have an ottoman similar to Elizabeth’s so I continued on to upholster the top.
I first ordered two inch thick high density foam. The widest I could find was 36″ and the table is 38″ so I had to patch one side with a two inch strip. The foam was cut to size and I secured it by spraying an adhesive over the table top and one side of the foam and then secured the foam in place. Next step was to cover the foam with Dacron and staple in place.
Once this was done it was a matter of finding the perfect fabric. This was the hardest part for me. I have a lot of fabric in my stash and was hoping to use a piece from that but nothing seemed to work, so I ventured out to a fabric store and came home with a few samples. Once I laid them in place I realized they were not the look I wanted either.
The ottoman sat in my workshop waiting for the fabric while I stripped apart and painted other chairs. And then finally I found the perfect fabric. It is cream and light bluish green – coastal colours – and it works beautifully with my floral rug. I piped the edge of the table with the same fabric in a single welt cord and then made a double welt cord in a blue, green and cream fabric and attached it to the rim of the table as an accent.
I am very pleased that my new ottoman is now the centre piece of the living room. It has an interesting back story, having been a throw away coffee table destined for landfill, and it is a great statement piece for what is possible when you use your imagination.
Leave a Reply