THE BIRTH OF THE OTTOMAN

Why is an ottoman footstool so called? Back in the day, Istanbul in Turkey was called Constantinople and was the centre of the Ottoman Empire which controlled huge amounts of land around the Mediterranean Basin. In those days, the main piece of residential seating was a low wooden platform which was piled high with cushions. According to Wikipedia ?it was first designed as sectional furniture that wrapped around three walls of a room, before evolving into smaller versions that fit into the corner of a room, or circular padded seats surrounding a column or pole in a public room?. Over time, during the 19th century, the ottoman gradually began to have hinged seats in order to make use of the space inside to store things in. The ottoman footstool is a closely related piece of furniture and was an upholstered footstool on four legs which could also be used as a fireside seat. And so it is today. Although it doesn?t necessarily have to have legs, and of course, not so many people have a fire now. But all of the ottomans that we produce at Footstools & More can take the weight of an adult or in the case of the larger ones, two adults, which is perfect for when you have more guests in your home than you have seats. It Makes Sense To Use Your Footstool For Storage If you are going to make use of a footstool, it just makes perfect sense to use it for storing, in which case it is called an ottoman, or a storage footstool which is the same thing. In general, our ottomans are larger than a single footstool, so there is plenty of space for storage. Many women use an ottoman in the bedroom in order to sit at the dressing table and put on makeup and do their hair using a mirror. In this case, the ottoman may be used for storing bed linen, towels, and other items that are needed upstairs and in the bathroom. Downstairs in the living room they can be used for keeping all sorts of things that are needed to hand but which you don?t want cluttering the place up. For instance, you might use them to keep playing cards, or a chess set, or Monopoly set in. Those are things that you won?t use every day, yet they are right there when you want them. You can also keep the remote in there, along with magazines, books, dvd?s, and just possibly a bottle of your favourite tipple and a couple of glasses.

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