"They don't make 'em like they used to"

Hands up who gets sick of hearing that expression. I know I do. Problem is, it's kinda true.

It's a bit of a vicious circle really: things aren't made to last, so we find ourselves having to replace them. But then technology advances so quickly and tastes change so regularly, that there is sometimes little point in investing in an item built to last.

But there are times when I find myself wondering how we got to this level of throwaway-ness in both attitude and product quality.

Here's a 'for example'. A while ago, I bought an ottoman cube thingy to use as a dressing table stool. It was covered in a less-than-gorgeous burgundy dralon, but I knew I could do something about that: there was bound to be something useful in my large fabric stash. I'm no Sarah Moore, but I have a large stash of fabric, just the same.

Before I even got around to doing that, one side of the ottoman gave way under my weight. Even that, I thought, should be a simple fix. So I took it apart. In doing so, I discovered a label that identified the piece as a footstool. Clearly never intended to bear the full body weight of a buxom wench like myself. My bad.

That wasn't all I discovered, though.

I discovered that what I had was not so much an ottoman, as a slightly reinforced cardboard box, covered in fabric.

This is the ottoman, showing where it has given way

I removed the fabric, to find this. Polythene sheeting, over foam.

Under the fabric

I removed the polythene sheeting and flipped the piece it over to reveal its secrets. Two sides made of cardboard. Two sides of chipboard. The top was cardboard with chipboard struts, one of which had broken, as you can clearly see. You can also see that the cardboard of the top has torn. I suspect even a pair of feet might have achieved that.

Reinforced cardboard box

The sides were covered in 1cm foam. The top had a thicker layer: 2-3cm.

Foam padding

I salvaged the foam, and have already used some of it in another project. The fabric may find a purpose at some point. The chipboard and cardboard will fuel a fire chez Romeis.

The polythene sheeting will have to go to the tip, because it isn't recyclable. And that gives me the mutters, it really does. Because that's the stuff that nightmares are made of for animals. It gets wrapped around necks, feet and wings. It gets stuck in throats, permanently located in digestive tracts and incorporated into nests where it can smother the next generation before they even have a chance to venture out. It can frequently be seen festooning the trees jammed in trees, hedges and fences along the motorway and in the countryside (on which point, is it just me, or is England particularly littered this year?). It's the very divvel, so it is.

I'm not going to name and shame the company from which I bought the piece, because I suspect they're not the only ones. My suggestion? If you can't see what its skeleton is made of, assume it's crap.

In order to end on something of a positive note, here's what I replaced the ottoman with. I bought a stool from a local charity shop and gave it a makeover using fabric I had to hand. There wasn't quite enough, so I had to get a little inventive. I'm very pleased with it.

Remembering how to do blanket stitch

Making a feature of the shortage of fabric

The finished article. Cute, huh?