Coffee Table Ottoman DIY from a thrifted wooden wine box

Using a wine crate to make a DIY coffee table ottoman, you can create beautiful extra seating with storage in your living room with inexpensive thrifted materials.

This no-sew wine crate Ottoman is a rather easy project, but it needs patience at certain points. I guide you on where to find material for your DIY projects, what to look for in thrift stores what you should avoid when shopping second-hand, and what you should consider buying new when making your own upholstered ottoman project. After reading this you also know the materials to use to make your Ottoman look professional and how to upholster it.

DIY Coffee table ottoman requires basic hammering, drilling, and staple gun know-how. If you want something simpler, take a look at wooden wine crate craft ideas in decoration that do not require any carpenter skills.

| RELATED: Interested in other tutorials? Check out the Thrift & DIY Category page for inspiration!

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Tips for making your own Ottoman coffee table

• Use enough thick plank to hold your weight if you use the Ottoman as an extra seat as well.
• To make the top of the Ottoman look and feel the best, use a high-density foam meant for upholstering
• Make sure that you have enough of the supplies in hand: enough nails and screws, big enough foam, and fabric.
• Choosing a 12-bottle wine crate over a 6-bottle one, you can make a good-sized storage ottoman.
• The height of the table depends on the size of the wine box and the ottoman legs too, if you want a slightly higher choose taller legs.

What to use as a base for the thrifted ottoman

Wine crate

PROS

Wine and similar sturdy crates are perfect for your ottoman project. Wine crate allows you to create a storage space under your ottoman, for that extra throw blanket or magazines or whatever you need to stash away, and keep in hand in your living room or the guest room – why not? You can find beautiful wine crates for free from restaurants if you just ask. Check out my post for wooden wine box craft ideas to learn more about how and where to find wine crates for DIY projects.

CONS

You need to be picky when choosing your wine crate for Ottoman. If it is not sturdy and stable leave it. The ottoman should be easy to carry your weight and should not fall if you place your tray of tea or pile of magazines on top of it.

Old coffee table

PROS

You can find a coffee table or other low old table that is nice and sturdy, and there are fewer things to find in the thrift store. If you are feeling less crafty and you do not want to use power tools, this is your route. You need only make the soft seat on the top of the ready-made table.

CONS

Any kind of coffee table is not suitable for turning into an ottoman. Leave out the ones that have glass surfaces, that are wiggly, or have an edge that is big and decorative. If the edge is not straight it might affect how the soft seat you are creating is going to look and how easily the piece of foam and the upholstery fabric are going to take their place.

Using wine crate in this tutorial

In this tutorial, I have used a thrifted wine crate, that I got free from and I will show how to turn it into a coffee table ottoman with storage. I do not go through the upholstery techniques for turning an old coffee table into an ottoman in this post, but some of the principles may apply to that one too.

Materials you need for

• Wine box, I used a wine box that holds 12 bottles
• Plank the size of your wine box
• Upholstery foam, look for one with high-density
• Upholstery fabric
• Small wooden stoppers to secure the lid seat
• Square support planks to secure the legs
• Legs for ottoman with screws
• Screws
• Nails 
• Wood glue

See the sizes that I used when making this ottoman project in the tutorial card. Notice that the exact size you need depends on the thrifted material you personally have on hand. Make sure you adjust this guidance to your own diy ottoman coffee table project.

Tools you may need

• Drill
• Staple gun and staples 
• Hammer
• Tape measure
• Marker, and scissors 

How to build a coffee table ottoman

Step one – Gather your supplies, measure, and cut

To start your DIY Ottoman project the first step is to take measures of your wine box, and cut the plank for the seat the same size as the box, to cover it. Cut as well the foam the same size as the seat cover. Cut four squares to support the legs that will be screwed into the bottom of the ottoman, and finally cut the tiny wood pieces as stoppers. About 3 cm x 15 cm long should be enough to keep the seat from moving around. You can see below the amazing sketch that I made when planning the ottoman.

Step two – Shape the foam and glue it

Now is the time to shape the foam. This step is not necessary if you want to have a tightly square seat, but to add some character to your handmade coffee table ottoman, you can round the edges of the foam with the following sketch. 

The idea is to take off some of the foam from the two narrow ends of the foam to give a tiny roundness to the seat cushion. Depending on the size you can mark 15 to 20 cm from the edge of the foam and peel it off with a knife. This doesn’t need to be super exact for we will still stretch the upholstery fabric on the top to make it more round.

Spread wood glue on the top of the seat plank and press the foam on the top. Let it dry for a moment. If you are making a very large Ottoman seat and using something else than a wine crate, consider using a wadding to secure the foam better before continuing to the next step.

Step three – Staple the fabric

Roll the fabric on the top of the foam to see that it covers completely. You should have fabric that is big enough to staple the edges on the bottom of the seat like in the photos below. 2 to 5 cm extra is totally enough, I had quite much extra, so I folded it all. Start stapling the fabric to the seat plank evenly from the middle end of one short side first then the opposite side and repeat with the long sides accordingly.

Continue stapling a few staples on the sides of the middle one still, but leave about 15 cm from the edges to make it easier to make the foldings in the corners.

Working sideways, pull the fabric to stretch the side of the seat straight and shoot one staple to secure it. Now to make a cleaner folding in the corner cut from the corner a square excess fabric piece off. If there is too much fabric the folding and stapling will be hard and you might see an unwanted gap between the seat and the wine box, the core of the ottoman.

First, check that you have pulled the fabric straight on the other side of the seat. Then, fold it like a pointing triangle against the bottom of the seat, as in the photos below. Staple it to secure it.

Then work with the other side of the bench with the same kind of folding. This needs a bit of patience to check that everything is nice and tight and that the fold meets the edge to make a straight line and stays beautiful. Below you see the fold better. Secure with staples.

Now add the extra staples on the sides of the corner folds to prevent them from unraveling and repeat with the other corners.

NOTICE: When you are doing the other corners decide if you want the foldings to be in the same direction or opposite directions in the narrow ends of the seat. I chose the latter for this tutorial ottoman.

Step four – Attach the upholstery ribbon

Using the upholstery ribbon is totally up to you. If you do not use it pay careful attention to folding the corners beautifully. When you use the ribbon, it will slightly hide the corners, so neat foldings are not that crucial.

Start first stapling the end of the ribbon. It is easier to start not directly in the corner but slightly away from it. Then go around the seat stapling about every 10 centimetres. I had a ribbon where the staples got nicely hidden because of the nature of the decoration, but consider using decorative upholstery nails instead of staples if the ribbon is a different kind.

PRO TIP: If the staple doesn’t sink in perfectly, and it remains too visible on the ribbon use the hammer to get the staple better hidden.

Finish the ribbon by folding the end slightly underneath and secure it with a staple. This ending is quite thick depending on your ribbon, so press well the stapler before shooting and help with the hammer if it seems not to sink in.

Step five – Nail wooden stoppers

Use the small wooden stoppers about 15 cm long and 3cm wide to prevent the seat from moving. Measure the thickness of the wine box edge to know where to place the stoppers at the bottom of the seat. Use nails and a hammer to attach the stoppers. Try every once in a while if the seat sets nicely on the top of the wine box.

Step six – Screw support for feet and attach the feet

Drill two holes in the corner of the wooden wine crate to screw and secure the wooden support for the furniture legs. Choose screws that are shorter than the total thickness of the winebox bottom and the supporting piece to not to pierce through. Repeat with three other corners.

Now mark a space where you drill a hole for the furniture legs for the ottoman.

NOTICE: I used furniture legs with built-in screws. If you have furniture legs with another kind of attachment you may need to attach them differently. Avoid placing the legs too close to the edge so as not to break the winebox. My husband likes drilling – I don’t so he did all the drilling for me. He measured about 4 centimeters from both edges to get the legs set perfectly.

Now roll all the furniture legs in their place, set the seat in its place, and your Coffee table ottoman is ready!

Step seven – Enjoy the finished product: a beautiful ottoman

Now that you have done such hard work with your DIY ottoman, take a moment to enjoy the beautiful handmade Coffee table ottoman. Well, I did put my feet up to enjoy mine!

How much does it cost to build your DIY Coffee table ottoman?

The pricing depends on the materials you are using. The more you can thrift, the more inexpensive your Coffee table ottoman will be.

Here is the breakdown of the purchases that I made for this project, with the examples where I got them to show you how they all come together from various places. The most expensive things are the upholstery foam and fabric, so to decrease the price of the project try to find those thrifted or for example use a cheaper mattress instead of an actual upholstery foam to make it even more affordable.

• Wine crate 0 €  – Free from a restaurant
• Wooden plank 0 €  – Leftover piece from husband’s workplace
• Scrapwood pieces 0 € – Found from the workshop scrapwood bin of our housing company
• Upholstery foam 0 € – An old baby mattress from our maternity package.
• Fabric 0 € – Thrifted from a Recycling center’s free items section.
• Legs with screws 40 € – Second hand about 5-20 €. I didn’t find four pieces secondhand of the ones I wanted in about 8 months (phew), and when I finally did someone was faster and bought it before I could, so I gave up and bought new ones quite similar to these ones (these are cheaper though than what I bought!).
• Upholstery ribbon 23 €  – Upholstery ribbon is a tough one to find secondhand. The longer piece you need the more difficult it is to find. To match the ribbon color with the color of the fabric is another tricky thing. The decorative upholstery ribbon can be left out also completely if you aim for a simpler design in your ottoman or consider purchasing a new one like these.
• Staples, screws, wood glue, used worth of maybe 2-3 € 

So all this count together this Coffee table Ottoman project cost less than 70€ to make.

More wine box craft ideas

Where to find material for your DIY Project

Ask around

When you have a thrifty mindset you will find easily affordable second-hand materials for any project. Try the most easy places first: friends and family. It just might be that your relative has a leftover piece of upholstery fabric from upholstering their kitchen chairs. Keep the discussion open and you start to notice that people will also ask “Hey, would happen you need this and this, I got something extra?” Remember to also return the favor to keep the exchange continuous.

Thrift stores and second-hand shops

Other places to look for affordable materials are thrift stores and second-hand stores. You might need to visit frequently if you are looking for something specific, for the shops fill their selection daily. Keep an eye on things that you see often in their selection to know what is a rare thing that you should buy when you see it and what are items that frequently come to the store and you can be picky with their condition.

Facebook Marketplace and groups

Facebook Marketplace and other Facebook groups are a goldmine for thrifters. If you are into projects and DIYs you can find plenty of Facebook groups in specific niches where like-minded people exchange and sell affordably any excess things. Notice that you can also find unexpected things for example in a group where people are selling second-hand restaurant items. Type random things in the Facebook search bar and check what comes out. You can always exit the groups you feel are not worth following. 

What you should look for in thrift stores

Keep your eyes open when buying second-hand. Choose things that look and feel clean and not too worn out. Mostly safest things to buy are things that are metallic, wooden, or glass, for they are easy to clean. Also, upholstery fabric is a good buy if it doesn’t look too worn out, otherwise it will not last long in use.

Alarming red flags, and what not to buy when shopping secondhand

When thrifting and buying things second-hand, there is not all that you should take and accept. Stay away from things that smell bad, and look too worn out or dirty in such a way that there is no point in purchasing. Be extremely cautious when buying things that could have fleas like mattresses or sofas. If you find something like a perfect-looking upholstery foam that looks and smells good you can in wintertime time leave it on a balcony or porch for 24 hours, to kill any possible tiny animals that cannot be seen. If you have a big enough freezer you can of course use that too!

Consider buying these things new for your Coffee Table Ottoman DIY project

• Some things just makes more sense when purchased new. I suggest using new nails, screws so that they are not wanky and buy new glue, or it might be dry. 
• If you cannot find enough big pieces of upholstery fabric, it would be better to buy a new one. If the fabric is too small the result will not be good. Also, I suggest not using other fabrics that are strong upholstery fabrics, for they will break faster than one that is meant for furniture.
• The upholstery foam, though it is pricy, is something you should consider buying new. You should have a dense foam that is high enough to be comfortable to sit on. And the soft seat is the essence of a good coffee table ottoman. 

Weigh on the things you want for your ottoman and your budget to decide which supplies you prefer instead of thrifting.

Have you built your ottoman inspired by this post?

Tag me on Instagram with @blue.tea.tile, or let me know in the comments how your Ottoman turned out, I would love to know more!

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