Ottoman Reconfigured Into Dust Free Garage Storage

Valerie Burge
by Valerie Burge
8 Materials
3 Hours
Easy

Our garage has mostly open shelving, which is convenient for finding stuff. But I do a lot of sanding out there, so finding places to store things I don’t want to get sanding dust on has been a bit of a challenge. I had been given a free ottoman that I used there, but because our garage is small it always seemed to be in my way! So I decided to use it differently.

Before

REMOVING WHAT I DIDN'T NEED

The first thing I did was remove the faux leather from the top of the ottoman using a utility knife.

Remove faux leather

Under that was a layer of pink foam, which pulled off easily. The parts that had been glued down I used a little mirror scraper to get the remnants off.

Remove foam

I removed the two brackets that kept the lid in the upright position. (I kept them, as I have no doubt they will come in handy on a future project.)

Remove brackets

On the other side of the top, I removed the black dust cover using a staple remover and plyers. This was probably the most time-consuming step, it took roughly an hour to get all the staples out!

Remove dust cover

I removed the feet, using a hex key. (I re-used these feet on a project the very next day!)

Remove feet

There were three holes down the center of the top. I placed painters’ tape on the back sides and filled the holes with wood filler.

Fill the holes

SHELEVES

I found two boards in my scrap pile and trimmed them to the correct length and width to fit inside the ottoman.

Shelves

BRACKETS

I trimmed a piece of scrap wood to the length I needed and then ripped those to create four brackets.

Shelf brackets

I screwed the brackets into the sides of the ottoman and added the shelves on top. Then I gave the top a light sanding, just to remove the glue residue and smooth out the wood filler. And also to remove splinters.

Light sanding

I attached the ottoman to the wall, drilling into a stud on each side, using 2” screws and washers. I lined it up so the bottom of the ottoman was sitting on the cement ledge that runs along that wall. It’s very sturdy! 


HARDWARE

I attached a knob to the top and a magnetic door closer. The door closer wasn’t making a tight enough seal to keep the dust out, so I attached a latch to keep the door closed nice and tight.

Hardware

On the inside of the top (which was now the door) I added two eye hooks and a shoe string so I could use that space to store the accessories for the tools I’ll be storing inside the cabinet.

Accessories ledge

Then my wall mount storage was good to go!


While I was cleaning up I came across a faux sunflower head that was missing it’s stem. I placed that in the center hole on the door (the wood filler still hadn’t dried) and used a little screw on the other side to hold the flower in place. It was attached the exact same as the knob, but using an existing hole.

A touch of whimsy

And here’s my dust free garage storage solution! I'm happy I won't be tripping over that ottoman the next time I work in the garage. And I think it turned out pretty cute for a project that required very little effort. 😊

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