After transforming our living room, building a cupboard in the alcoves and fitting a new fireplace, there has been so much styling to do and buying furniture, in the most affordable way too!
I have grown quite fond of a Facebook marketplace hunt and finding something truly ugly and cheap that has a lot of potential.
As the living room is quite small, we only have enough room for a sofa and one accent chair, but I love the idea of adding a rattan pouffe next to the chair.
The one I devoured after was from Dunelm and just under £90, but I’d previously fallen in love with a stripe ottoman that an interior designer sells on her website for a neat £1,200! It was also a coffee table size so whilst the cost put me off, the size definitely did.
I was browsing Facebook marketplace for nothing in particular until I stumbled on this pink square pouffe. £10, it was perfect!
I already knew exactly how I was going to transform this, and for a fraction of the interior designers price. Keep reading to see how you could do this too and how you can reupholster a pouffe for minimal cost involved.
Tools You Will Need
- Pliers
- Tape measure
- Fabric
- Fabric scissors
- Pins for tacking
- Sewing machine
- Staple gun & staples
- A pouffe!
How To Reupholster A Pouffe
Remove The Base
The first step is to remove the base. Pouffes will usually look like this underneath, the main aim here is that we want to remove the existing fabric so we can make a template from it.
You’ll need pliers for this stage to remove all of the staples from the base.
Once all of the staples have been removed you can take the felt piece off (save this for later). You’ll notice that some fabric was left behind, this was due to the sheer amount of staples that were used.
As no one will see this area it didn’t matter too much, it just meant that when creating our template on the new fabric we would have to accommodate for the extra cm we needed to add on.
Remove The Current Cover
Now that you’ve removed the staples, you should be able to peel back the cover in a complete piece. This is going to allow us to model the template on our new piece of fabric for the pouffe.
This revealed perfect wadding underneath that we were able to retain. If the underneath is spoiled or smells, it’s probably a good opportunity to renew the wadding at the same time, just factor the extra width into this if it’s more than the existing piece as it will affect the amount of fabric you use.
Create The New Template
The fabric I chose was a beautiful denim ticker stripe from Britannia Rose. Because the fabric was striped and I wanted it to run vertically around all 4 sides the original template method wasn’t going to work.
Normally I would have stitch unpicked the corners of the existing cover, this would reveal an almost cross like template, and it would involve marking out and cutting your new fabric to this, paying attention to how many cms the initial inside hems were, this part is important as it will ensure the cover is tight, not loose when you refit it.
In this case the initial cover only came in handy to work out that the hems used up a 1cm of fabric on the inside, so we knew we needed to add this amount onto the fabric for the sides.
To create the template we cut one long length of fabric, this covered the top and 2 sides in one length, we just measured the pouffe to get this measurement.
We then had to cut 2 squares of fabric for the other two sides, ensuring we added extra length onto the ends too (we could cut any excess off once fitted if needed). Again, we measured the sides of the pouffe to get these measurements.
Always cut with fabric scissors for a neat finish, and do mark out with pins when cutting to avoid marking with pens! We were then ready to start sewing it together.
Sew The Template Together
You’ll need a sewing machine for this part, it will save time and the finish is so much neater. In our case, we had 4 seams to sew to create the cover, using 1cm of fabric on each side to create the hem, remember to sew the hems with the fabric inside out!
Once you’ve completed the hems, make sure any threads are sewn off and turn the fabric round the correct way.
When you do this it will allow you to check that the corners are all seamless. We actually tested the cover on the box before tidying the threads up just to ensure it actually fitted.
Fitting The New Cover
Then comes the easy part when you can start to see the fruits of your labour! When fitting it remember it’s going to be tight, it should be tight. It may feel like one corner won’t go in, but trust me it does (as long as you’ve measured correctly!). Once the top of the cover is put on, the rest should fit like a glove.
Staple The Fabric To The Base
When you’re confident that it fits perfectly and there’s no exposed threads it’s time to staple the base. Flip the pouffe over and pull the fabric up to the edges.
Get your staple gun ready and start on one side at a time. You need to ensure you pull the fabric really taut, you don’t want any excess or bagginess to the pouffe, the fabric should look flawless and streamlined.
Once pulled taut, start stapling the fabric onto the wooden part of the base. You’ll want to repeat this on each side a number of times to ensure it’s fully secure.
Add The Base Back On
It’s time to complete the reupholster of your pouffe by adding the base back on. The felt base was in good condition and didn’t smell, so I gave it a good vacuum and just flipped it over to show the nicer side.
It was then just a case of stapling the felt onto each side nice and tight. We then added the feet back onto the base to complete the pouffe.
The Finished Reupholster of The Pouffe
I am just IN LOVE! Comparing it to the designer piece I took inspiration from, it’s literally identical but the right size for living room and created for a huge fraction of the cost. This reupholster has been a huge success, and it was surprisingly easy!
The pouffe was £10 from Facebook marketplace and we had to use just under 1m of fabric to complete this which came to around £15.
So, for a brand new and beautiful pouffe that I was looking for we did it for £25, taking around 2 hours of our time.
This has been one of my favourite DIY’s to date and I’m already looking on Facebook marketplace for my new project. I hope you found this useful for your next project and comment below if you have any questions. Let me know if this project inspires you to reupholster your own pouffe!
Love it !
Thank you!