Tufting a coffee table..my version

First of all, today has been a fun day for this little blog.  I am excited to have Shannon and Nate’s kitchen featured on Remodelaholic today.  Woohoo!  I love Cassity’s blog, if you have never been to her site it is a must read.  Check out her revamp of a hutch that you will not believe the before to the after.  It is a must see.

Then Melissa, from Made in the South listed me as one of her  “Fabulous Friday Four” blogs today.  Wow, that was a huge surprise and such an honor.  Just to think that someone other than my family likes my blog always floors me! Go check out the other bloggers she listed today, you won’t be disappointed.  {I already pinned a lot of their stuff lol}

Ok, now that I told you about all the fun things that happened today, I can show you my revamp of my coffee table.

I have decided that I like to put my feet up when I sit on my settee in my studio.  I love my cute, thrift shop, $5 coffee table that I previously re-purposed with paint, fabric and Mod Podge.

The fabric on the table has held up very nicely, and there wasn’t a darn thing wrong with it.  I just need more softness under my legs. {or maybe I need to get off that settee and get some work done…lol}

So off to Joann’s I went.  I decided to use hot pink pleather and do some diamond tufting for fun. {I use the term “diamond tufting” loosely here, it is more like my version of diamond tufting, not exact but good enough} I bought one yard of fabric and with my coupon I spent $5.  I already had the foam and button covers, so I was good to go.

Now I am not a professional upholsterer by any means, but I can You Tube anything.  So that is what I did.  I watched a couple of videos got out my staple gun and off I went.  I used blue tape to mark my spots and then drilled the holes {as you can see I made a couple of mistakes and had to circle the actual ones that I needed to drill}

Then I turned my coffee table over and traced the table on to the foam.  I use a electric carving knife to cut the foam, I have found this is the best way to cut foam.  I opted not to use batting over the foam, pure laziness on my part.  Professionals use it but since I am professional impatient person who wants things done yesterday, I skipped this step.  Plus my fabric was plenty thick enough to enable me to eliminate this step.  If I was using a thinner cotton fabric, I would of used batting.

I didn’t take a picture of the next step because it was too hard to hold a camera and thread a needle through the table and fabric at the same time.  But this is what I did.

I laid my yard of fabric evenly on all sides on top of the foam. Then I threaded a long needle with some embroidery thread {that is all I had, you are suppose to use heavy upholstery thread} through the table, foam and fabric, and then went back down through all three layers again.   I stapled the thread to the under side like this

{they suggest to mark the foam to the holes and cut a hole through the foam, I skipped this step and just felt my way through the foam with the needle.  Once again, not the professional method but it worked fine for me}

Once I got all my “tufting” done, I started stapling the fabric underneath and cut the excess fabric

It turned out semi “diamond” like,  good enough for me.  Then I used the button cover kits you get from Joanns and cut out squares of white fabric and made the buttons for the tufting

I tied off my embroidery thread on the clasp to secure the button

These are the type of needles to use for tufting, they have different lengths depending on how deep your tufting is

I took my button and long needle and threaded it through the tufting down under the table and stapled it again to the under side of the table to secure the button.

I choose white vinyl fabric for the buttons instead of the  pink pleather.  Gives it some pizazz and fun to the top don’t you think?

I always feel so energized and cre8tive when I am in my studio with all the fun colors I have used in there.  I just love the new addition of the tufted pink pleather coffee table.   It is going to be hard not to be lounging on that settee and propping my feet up instead of working.

Linking up to these fun parties