One of my good friends, Kim, showed me how she transformed an old cedar chest into a file cabinet! 
Brilliant!
We have one file drawer in our house that is filled to the brim – we have files from old taxes, old houses, adoption papers, etc. So, when redesigning our office into a reading room I decided to use an old chest as the coffee table/ottoman knowing I would use the inside as file storage.
It works perfectly as a place to put your feet in front of the sofa
or set a book or coffee.
I used an outdoor fabric for the top. That way people (children) can sit on it, put their feet on it, and even spill a coffee on it and it will be OK.
I love the bold red ikat fabric! It coordinates well with our rug and sofa, but adds a slightly modern touch to the other more traditional elements in the room.
It was in pretty bad shape when I found it (on Craigslist):
You can see the bottom right and upper left corners were damaged.
After a little sanding and re-staining the new corners just add character to the piece.
I also switched out the hardware.
And, of course I recovered it. To see how I recovered it check out my previous post: Recovering a Foot Stool. I used the same method here.
I love how it looks from our front hallway.
When you walk in our front door and look left down the hallway it adds a bit of fun color!
