That’s right–two groovy 1970’s cheetah print ottomans and one very sad and saggy blue ottoman/footstool which I think was made in the 1950’s for a middle school shop class project–it’s that well made.  You’re probably wondering why I have such a mess that the end of my bed and here’s the reason:

Before we adopted Delilah, I had two great “X” base benches at the end of our bed.  We already had Samson, and he would use them to hop up on the bed for snuggles and bedtime.  Then Delilah joined our family, and she too wanted to hop up on the bed.  She was a rescue dog who had broken her leg while she was with her first family, and it didn’t heal correctly.  When she came to us, she couldn’t even go up and down the stairs, much less jump onto furniture.  She’s recovered a lot since then, but she still can’t jump very high, so I came up with the lovely ottoman arrangement above.  She jumps on the lower stool, then to one of the higher ones, and then onto the bed.  It’s functional but not pretty.  I’ve gone back and forth about a solution and I decided to bring down a long bench from our guest room and have the sad blue ottoman out in front of it as a step for Delilah.  Here’s the progress so far with a newly slip-covered blue ottoman:

I don’t think I’ve told you yet about my fabric problem collection.  We just moved from Virginia and I think we probably had 10-20 boxes filled with fabric–some on bolts, some just remnants, some discontinued memo samples.  I have a hard time tossing beautiful fabric, even it’s only little scraps.  My husband, however, thinks there should be a 12-step program for my problem.

Sooo, I’m trying not to buy any additional fabric to complete this room.  My window treatment fabric is something I bought for our last house and didn’t end up using because we decided to move.  Even the trim I added to my bedskirt was something we moved here.  So when I decided to slipcover the blue ottoman, I went hunting in my fabric closet (what, doesn’t everyone have a fabric closet???) and found the gold linen pictured above.  I had originally used it on this round ottoman in my very first Rachel Bauer Design project thirteen years ago and had a bit leftover:

There was less than a yard left, but it was perfect for this project.  The other thing I discovered in the fabric closet was—

FROGS!!!  Lilac Frogs!  I don’t even remember when I bought these frogs, but I’ve had them a long time.  I’ve always like the use of frog closures in fashion and in interior design.

I added my frogs to the corner pleats of the ottoman slipcover and also used the extras on my bedskirt.

The long bench will get a little makeover too and I’ll reveal that along with my silk window treatments and all the finishing touches next week.  Thanks for stopping by.  Please check out everyone else who’s participating in the One Room Challenge and the Linking Party here.  

Have great week!

Rachel