Ottomans

This project was made for our daycare provider and personal friend who is retiring from her daycare business to pursue a different career. She provided us with the pallet wood and some inspiration.

I didn't use SketchUp for this project for a few reasons but we did draw out some of the general concepts for the project including some of the joinery and our target final dimensions.
While the goal was to finish the project with reclaimed pallet wood we needed something to form the structure of the ottomans. Since we are cheap we used 2x6 construction lumber.
Before I could mill the larger board into the smaller parts that we needed I first had to get a clean and straight edge with hopfully very little twist.
One I had a straight edge I ripped the large board into squared strips (not pictured) that were approximately 1.5"x1.5" (the thickness of a 2 by. Then I carfully chose the best sections of the strips and cut to rough length, those with the fewest cracks, knots, sap, and resin.
Then I used a stop block on my sled to cut each board to its final lenght. If I were to do it again I would wait to cut them to final length until after they were planed. That way I would be more likely to trim off some of the snipe from the planer.
The addition of the Dust Deputy vortex dust collector has made a big different in my dust collection needs. I pretty much never have to clean the shop vac filter now. I did discover however that the electrical wiring in my garage is just garbage. I cannot run the planer and the shop vac at the same time for very long without tripping the breaker. What I ended up doing is running an extension cable to one of our exterior outlets for the planer and then running the shop vac from the garage.
Here each board is exactly the same height, width, and length.
All this milling made a lot of shavings, and this was for just one of the two ottomans.
Using pocket hole screws for joining the parts of the frame together. It would have been nice to use bridle joints but I am still not super confident in my accuracy with my joinery and I didn't want this project to take months to complete.
All the holes are drilled in the short pieces.
First assembled each side.
In addition to the pocket hole screws I also used glue, for the little additional strength that will provide.
Both sides complete (the other leaning in the bottom corner) and now the the stretchers that join the two sides are in place.
The completed frame. The pocket holes on for the top and bottom stretches face in because the bottom will be covered by the bottom panel and the top will be out of sight on the inside of the box. The pocket holes for the sides face out as they will be covered by the pallet wood sides.
Cutting the bottom panel. The blue tape is to help reduce tearout of the nice veneer on either side.
Marked the corners of the bottom panel where I need notch out so that it will fit in the frame.
Cutting this by hand was very quick.
And my accuracy with my hand saws is getting a lot better.
The half inch bottom panel got tacked in with my air nailer.
Next I ripped some pre milled pine trim with a 70° bevel. This bevel will be used to help hide the gaps between each of the side panels.
Next the trim pieces are cut to length with 45° miters.
The top trim in place.
In this shot you can see how the 45 and the 70 come together in the corners.
twins
Next we sorted through all of the pallet wood... it ended up being very close.
As with the 2x6, I started off working on each of the side panels by creating a clean straight edge.
Each side panel got the same 70° bevel as the trim.
The width of the side panels ended up being about 4.5" wide.
One side complete.
All sides complete. Glued and nailed.
The bottom gets the same trim treatment as the top.
Different angle before stain.
Mess
More mess
Lots of mess
Pre-drilling holes for the castors.
Taped off the trim before stain is applied.
Inside shot before stain and poly.
Finish by my lovely wife.
Castors on
Inside after stain and poly.
Base fabric layer to hold the foam in place, not sure what its called.
These frames go on the bottom of the seat. They do a couple things. They provide a registration point that keeps the lid in place. They hide the staples and edge of fabric. And they help keep anythin that might be sitting on the seat when it is flipped over from sliding off.
To help add some strength to the frame, which would otherwise be held together by only an end grain glue up, I wanted to add some splines. I was concerned however that with how thin the frame was something would get messed up. So instead I just trimmed a way a portion of the underside of the frame.
Measuring for the drill holes that will hold the frame in place.
Holes drilled and counter sunk.
Final layer of fabric.
We drilled holes in the side and tied in rope handles.
The top flipped over can be used as a table.
All done.