Monogrammed Ottoman

Remember this lovely guy?

I bought him awhile ago to go in my reading nook, and he has just been waiting to undergo a sex change.  Do you ever have it where you just can't seem to find the right fabric?  It happens to me all the time.  I have an idea in mind, but it never seems to exist.  For this ottoman, I wanted something neutral and light that would look good with my white chair.  I roamed aimlessly around Jo-Ann for a good 30 minutes before I stumbled across this fabric.

It's simple, it's plain, and it was exactly what I needed {although not at all what I had been looking for}.  The transformation of this ottoman was fairly simple.  I removed the legs and gave them a nice little paint job.

{I swear I took a picture of these steps but they upped and ran away...}

I then covered the top of the ottoman with my new fabric.  See the piping in the original picture?  Ya, we just ignored that and put the fabric right over.  Now we get to the fun part.  Sometimes, the little details of a project are what makes it really come together.  When I picked the boring and simple fabric, I knew I was going to have to come up with something to spice it up.  I turned, of course, to my trusty Silhouette Cameo and cut out a little monogram design that I partly downloaded and partly created.  I used contact paper once again in order to stick the stencil to the fabric.  After combing white acrylic paint with textile medium, I carefully blotted the paint over the stencil.

I was a little nervous the paint would seep right through the contact paper {it doesn't stick very well to fabric}, but apparently the blotting technique was key because she turned out beautifully.

Her legs aren't looking too shabby either.

She was definitely a girl all along.  

It is exciting to have one more nook project complete, but there are still a few things that need to be done.

1.  New paint color.  It looks crazy blue in this picture and it makes me hate it even more.  I'll get around to it sometime in 2012, but I just really want to make sure I find something I love.  Husband says it needs to last longer than a year.

2.  Textiles {not blue}.  The chair really needs a nice pillow or two and those knitting supplies in the basket beside the chair are begging for some action.  I'm thinking a lovely knitted blanket would provide just the perfect amount of coziness for this space.

3.  Lighting.  I had to rob the lamp from beside my bed to use for now since this little corner gets very dark. I'm starting to miss it though so I'm on the look out for an awesome idea {preferably something that hangs}.

That's all for now.  Have a great weekend and make sure to do something outside!

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Miss Mustard Seed