My house has a secret.

By night, when the kids are in bed, the toys get put away and everyone (including the dog) gathers in the living room for a nice glass of Merlot and a foot-up rest.

But by day, Behold! It’s SUPER-OTTOMAN, complete with hidey-compartments and piled high with toys! This little gem is none other than an IKEA Ektorp Bromma footstool and it currently sells for $129. (yes, footstool, as they call it. Don’t be like me and spend hours searching their website for the word ‘ottoman’. Sigh).

And no, I know you’re all wondering. This wonderful little piece of living room furniture does not come with the dog hair you see in the pictures. I took the pictures today in between the chaos. You’ll get no vacuuming from me and like it!

And no, I still know what you are all wondering. We do not know the secret cure-all for dog hair. We solved our problem by going further into debt and installing hardwood floors in our entire house. Now, the hairs are kind enough to first gather into large dust bunnies so it’s easier for me to pick them up. And Zoë is kind enough to find them for me. Sigh.

But I digress.

Where was I? Oh yes, my ottoman. Rather than explain to you how my house is slowly turning into an IKEA catalog, I will explain how this lovely piece of furniture continues to make my life easier on a daily basis.

1. It makes cleaning up a no-brainer. I have this thing where once Zoë is in bed, the toys get put away and I have my living room back again to be myself. I can grab toys, throw them in, have the lid on, and put my feet on top of it faster than my kid starts to cry when I take away the pacifier. Human nature, folks – when it’s that easy to clean up, we’ll do it.
2. Zoë loves rummaging. When I was a kid, I used to have a whole cupboard to myself for toys. There are pictures of me buried in my cupboard sticking out my little toddler tooshie with toys strewn about. Now, in my small house, I don’t care how cute my kid is, there’s NO WAY I’m giving up precious cupboard space for toys! Now, I can open the ottoman, stand Zoë up beside it, and watch her attack the ottoman contents like I do when I’m searching through the bargain DVD bin at Walmart.

3. Who says ottomans are just for toys? Eventually my husband and I plan on getting another one for the bedroom to sit at the foot of the bed to house linens. Don’t think for one second we are lucky enough to have a linen cupboard. Our builders couldn’t even figure out how to make the bedroom closet the standard 4 foot width (ours counts in at a mere 3 feet, 8 inches. And yes, the folding doors that don’t close all the way look positively lovely, thanks for asking!)
4. The ottomans are slipcovered, so if you change your decor, you can pick up a new color. IKEA sells the ottomans in 7 different colors, all available to see on their website product page for the Ektorp Bromma footstool (ours is in Idemo Beige).

In my humble opinion, IKEA has hit a home run with this ottoman. It’s rare. It’s a gem. Why no one else has these, I’ll never know. I’ve never been able to find these anywhere else, and trust me, I’ve looked. If you were at a furniture store in Rhode Island a few months ago, I was that crazy lady trying to lift up the top half of all the ottomans, mumbling, “nope, not this one either…”