Storage Tote Ottoman

A while ago when I was searching for an ottoman to buy, I came across a comment on some forum that said you could save money by making an ottoman out of a storage tote. Tonight as I was cleaning up a bunch of blankets I was running out of room in the cabinet I keep them in. I thought about the comment I had seen and wondered if I had enough supplies to make one without going to the store. And I did!!! Here's what I used.

• Hot glue gun/glue sticks
• Sham that I haven't used in over a year (which just so happened to match my fabric perfectly)
• Fabric that I bought over the weekend and can't use
• Sturdy rubbermaid tote
• Pillow

LID: I had a feather pillow that I hate because the feathers poke out and hurt while trying to sleep. I hadn't been used for a while. I cut a corner on the pillow to let some of the feathers out (I think I'll use those extra feathers for matching pillows for this ottoman/extra seating.) I put one side of the sham on the lid and then pushed the pillow into the sham. After that I pulled the open end tightly over the lid. I had to cut the fabric a little bit to get it to squeeze onto the lid.

BOTTOM OF OTTOMAN: I started by making sure that the fabric would fit all the way around the tote. It worked out to where I could cover the bottom too by using the small width over the whole bottom. Usually storage tote's have some sort of lip that the lid matches up with.

I hot glued the fabric in the underside of the lip.

I tucked the fabric into the handle of the storage tote because I know we'll want to carry it around. I put hot glue in the handle holes and put double sided tape on the curved part of the handle under the fabric to keep it steady.

I used a popsicle stick to push the fabric into the hot glue in tight spots.

I cut the corners off and then folded them in a pleated fashion and tucked them into the lip. I secured it with hot glue.

Pleated corner on the ottoman.