Tag: IKEA

  • Making it Yours 13C: Möckelby Dining Table

    Making it Yours 13C: Möckelby Dining Table

    Time for the last of three looks around IKEA’s new Möckelby dining table! The first let wallpaper be the star with everything else playing supporting roles. The second room had plenty of pink and gold, with neon for wit. And now, nothing says “welcome, we’re glad you’re here” like four busts of bald women — distressed and aged for that extra special touch. They go perfectly with the $80 length of dyed-blue rope. (Get a pair and hang them like sconces! I’m joking, but I’m also not. It would look awesome.)

    Don’t worry. I tempered the crazy by including more traditional silverware, because gold or a more modern shape would just be too much.

    Making it Yours 13C: IKEA Mockelby Dining Table

    1. Meredith 4-Door Natural Grasscloth Cabinet, Bungalow 5

    2. Barbara Barry White Enameled Chandelier, Circa Lighting

    3. Bullet Glass Arctic Blue Table Lamp, Wisteria

    4. Färgrik Turquoise Dinnerware, IKEA

    5. Ainsley Flatware, Crate & Barrel

    6. Sura Black and White Mirror, Anthropologie

    7. Indigo Tassel Wall Hanging, Handmade by WKND LA, Anthropologie

    8. Parma Gray Paint, Farrow & Ball

    9. Mia Dining Armchair with Brass Nailheads in Ellie Indigo, Ballard Designs

    10. Mia Dining Side Chair with Brass Nailheads in Ellie Indigo, Ballard Designs

    11. Möckelby Dining Table, IKEA

    12. Asst. Set of Mannequins, One Kings Lane

    hr 644

    Making it Yours 13: Möckelby Dining TableMaking it Yours 13A
    Making it Yours 13BMaking it Yours 13C

    Do you have a favorite from this edition of Making it Yours? I’m torn between the first two, I think. All of that pink is very ‘me’ but that wallpaper is SO good.

  • Welcome to the Brown Room

    Welcome to the Brown Room

    Where everything is a lovely shade of brown! Or cream! This room is very much in progress, and it has a long way to go still.

    Brown Town

    The couch is super-comfy, so no regrets there on choosing the IKEA Kivik, though it could use a throw and more than a single, sad pillow. The room is open to our bedroom, so I picked a brown that would work well with our brown upholstered bed. I wasn’t feeling the gray options, didn’t want white, and the only other colors at IKEA were red and purple.

    Add a bunch of wood trim and wooden furniture though, and YAWN.

    Room in Progress

    I like the Hemnes bookshelves in the room, and the Blake media console (that I picked up at the C&B outlet for half off) looks great. The Eames chair looks kind of lonely and out of scale against the wall right now, but I think it will look good in the room once everything comes together a bit more.

    Everything else though? It’s just kind of there. The sofa is floating in the middle of the room because I’m playing with the idea of putting a console or low bookshelf behind it for the kids’ toys. The rug was in the nursery, in the last house, and it’s a little small here. The coffee and end tables are OK, but only OK. The brown glider (also formerly in the nursery) is definitely not staying there, and it’s blocking a toy table which is weirdly shoved in a corner of the room.

    Room in Progress

    The room definitely needs paint, and curtains. That, plus art, will go a long way toward helping the room look better, but they won’t fix everything.

    Hello, embarrassment! Brandon informed me that I originally titled this post with a gross sexual term. Awesome. So yeah, I edited that out. WHOOPS.

  • IKEA KIVIK vs. KARLSTAD

    IKEA KIVIK vs. KARLSTAD

    Brandon and I moved our TV from the first floor up to the second a couple of months ago, but the seating had not followed suit. We had our brown corduroy glider with its rolled arms (not the prettiest, but so comfortable) side by side with our boxy mid-century-inspired white Petrie armchair. It worked, but… not really.

    We initially tried to bring our Jasper sofa upstairs (the beige sofa from the living room in our last house), but it would not fit up either set of stairs. Rather than finding a company to hack it apart and reassemble it (guaranteeing that the same would need to be done if we ever wanted to move it again), we sold the sofa on Craigslist. Three months later, we finally used that money to go buy a couch from IKEA. Because our only option for getting one upstairs is to get one that comes in pieces.

    But which one? That’s what took us so dang long. I couldn’t make up my mind.

    IKEA KIVIK vs KARLSTAD sofas

    I like the lines of the Karlstad, but I would want to switch out the legs. This simple set is $36, and Pretty Pegs has fun options from $68-144, depending on the style. Or the legs could be covered completely by a Bemz slipcover with a full skirt, which I like the look of.

    Then there was the Kivik. Similar in shape to the Karlstad, but with wide, padded arms. I actually like the width of the arms with the sofa is made longer with a chaise attachment, but I wasn’t crazy about them on the regular length version. The cushions are a little nicer than the Karlstad’s though (they have a top layer of memory foam), and I was sold on the arms as an additional spot to sit. Not all the time of course, but if we had a lot of people, a kid (or adult) could easily perch on the armrest as another seat. Plus when I asked about the Kivik on Twitter, someone said that it was an excellent napping couch. SOLD.

    We went out to IKEA last night to test the two side by side, and come home with our new Kivik. We had to open the box in the loading zone and fit everything in the car piece by piece, but we managed to do it (just barely). Brandon and I assembled it while the kids were asleep, and when Eleanor saw it in place this morning, she was impressed. “We BUILT it,” she exclaimed, accompanied by big eyes and a little circle mouth. (Um, we bolted a few pieces together and put a slipcover on. But OK, kid! We built it!) She and August then dove from each of the arms onto the cushions, taking turns so as not to bash their heads together. Everyone loves the new couch! And we got it up to the second floor! Success.

    I kinda want to go take a nap on it. You know, to fully test it out and all.

  • The Entryway with its New Sideboard

    The Entryway with its New Sideboard

    Hey now! The entryway is looking like a real, finished space!

    Making it Lovely's Victorian Entryway

    We do a lot of walking in this neighborhood, so we use the front door more often than the back. I had a runner along the wall for a while, where we would line up our shoes, but once the weather turned colder, we needed more storage for hats and mittens and the like. Plus our mail (and everything else) was piling up on the dining room table. Now everything has a home in the entryway.

    Making it Lovely's Entryway

    This house is well-suited to solid antiques and quirky pieces of furniture, but sometimes IKEA does the job (and does it well). The sideboard I chose is somewhat plain, but with the addition of some knobs and a vintage rug beneath, I really like it. Plus if it was too precious (read: expensive), I wouldn’t feel so great about using it as a glorified shoe cabinet.

    Entryway Shoe Storage Cabinet

    The kids backpacks are inside on the left half, along with two pairs of shoes each. I added cushioned shelf liner to the bottom so that it could be removed and cleaned if needed. Normally their hats and mittens are inside too, along the the top shelf, but when August and Eleanor saw me taking pictures, this happened.

    August and Eleanor

    Our shoes go on the right side, and my purse can go inside too. More often than not though, I leave it on the chair (which is supposed to be a spot to sit down and put one’s shoes on). The tray holds mail, and the basket is for Brandon’s wallet, phone, and keys.

    Antique Thonet Bentwood Chair in the Entryway

    Vintage scouting trophies, because why not? The kids like them.

    Vintage Trophies

    There are a few things to do still. The rug needs a thin pad underneath, and the floor outlet would blend more if the cover was wood instead of plastic. I’m a little worried that something will happen to the painting, since its within easy reach of the kids, so I’d like to frame and hang it. I’d also like to bring in more blue elsewhere, but that’s something that could happen in the larger context of the space with the adjoining rooms. Or if I come across another rug that I like equally but that fits the space better (longer), I can swap it out and find a new spot for the blue one.

    Maybe I’ll paint (the walls, not the wood). Maybe I’ll add some art near the door. The house will grow and change in time, but for now, the entryway is done.

    p.s. Here’s what the space looked like this morning after we went out to play in the snow. Clearly, I took the other pictures after I tidied up a bit.

    Entryway with Snow Gear

    And this is why I want to get that painting up. Too close for comfort here!

    Snowy Hat

  • The Spruce Upholstery Book, and Plans for August’s Bed

    The Spruce Upholstery Book, and Plans for August’s Bed

    I know how to upholster a simple chair seat. Years of Trading Spaces viewings taught me to start with a staple in the center, pull the fabric taut to the opposite side, staple, and work out from there. Beyond that though? I don’t know. Stick some batting in there under the fabric if you’re feeling fancy, and call it a day? And forget about webbing and springs. That wasn’t covered by Hildi. Of course, my lack of knowledge in this area didn’t stop me from purchasing an inexpensive wooden framed bed for August’s room, with the intent to upholster it.

    I waffled between several blue fabric choices, but I fell for a design with tree slices during a recent trip to IKEA. The color palette is neutral, and I’m thinking of it as a manly take on polka dots. You know, for my manly two-year-old.

    Boy's Bed Upholstery Fabric

    I felt like I could approach the project with my limited sewing skill set and do a decent job, but I wanted to do an amazing! job. I searched for tutorials online, but there are a lot of people out there putting out a lot of tutorials with questionable methods. Then I heard word that Spruce’s Amanda Brown was coming out with a book (Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design), so when I was asked to take part in her online book tour, I agreed.

    The book is divided among five key projects, and from those, you can adapt the techniques to whichever piece you want to work on. It’s thorough and covers what I would consider to be complex reupholstering jobs, but everything feels doable rather than overwhelming. I’m paying close attention to the section on the frame of a three-seater sofa, as it’s pretty close to what I’ll be doing to the bed.

    Upholstering a Sofa

    Win a Copy of the Book!

    Do you have any upholstering to do? The Spruce book tour and classes are about to start, and they’re also holding a giveaway with their “Ugliest Chair” contest on Facebook right now.

    I received a copy of the book for review, but I’m also giving a copy away. Just leave a comment below to enter*, and I’ll choose a winner at random. Good luck! And be sure to visit the other blogs participating in the online book tour.
    Spruce: A Step-by-Step Guide to Upholstery and Design

    Open to US residents only, 18 and over. Ends Friday at midnight, CT.

    *The giveaway has ended. Congratulations to the winner, Annie!

  • IVAR!

    IVAR!

    Remember this floor plan sketch for the basement, with the storage units labeled GORM (which is either a really unfortunate name or an IKEA product)? Right. Well, I went out to IKEA last week with the little ones in tow to make it happen. I’d promised Eleanor a visit to Småland, so she played while August and I hit up the utility shelving section. The shelving I’d planned on was cheap, but it felt cheap. Wobbly and thin, I was afraid it wouldn’t hold up well, so I went for IVAR instead.

    Five days later, Brandon took all of the pieces out of the car and brought them downstairs. I took over from there.

    IKEA IVAR Wooden Storage Shelving

    Building the corner unit went smoothly. Each shelf has a tiny plastic pouch with its six pegs stapled to it. You just line those up in the end and corner supports, rest a shelf on top, and away you go. I assembled it, attached the whole thing to studs in the wall, and was done in 15 minutes. Next, I wanted to build the chest of drawers I’d bought. It was an expensive component but I figured the drawers would prove useful.

    The instructions showed the chest installed with a cross-brace above, and I realized I’d have to move the corner unit to attach a brace to the side. Not a big deal; I just had to unscrew the safety strap attaching it to the wall. I went to get a shelf so that I could determine the proper distance, and I realized I had no pegs. The corner shelves each had a piece of wood beneath for stability, which allowed space to attach their hardware pouches. The others are just shelves that stack flat against each other. Of course by the time I’d reached the warehouse section of IKEA with two punchy children up past their bedtime ready to run around or melt down, that detail didn’t register properly. I also overbought long shelves and now need to return to IKEA for shorter versions, along with my 48 missing pegs. I don’t do well with last-minute changes, clearly.

    No matter! I took one corner shelf out and used the pegs to attach a shelf along the top, I lined another shelf up along the floor, and took measurements that way. Whee, problem solved! Why do people have such a hard time assembling IKEA furniture?

    IVAR Shelving

    I attached the cross-braces to two sections, congratulated myself on a job well done, anchored everything to the wall, and moved on to build the drawers. As I put it together, stopping intermittently to take photos, I was composing this blog post in my head.

    Do you know how fun it is for a perfectionist to put together one of these storage units? No, really, I’m not being sarcastic. Do you know how fun it is!? This thing snaps together and is easy to build, but not if you want it to be level/plumb, or sturdy. And this is both.

    Whee, what fun! Let’s stop and take pictures! Note that this is step 1. This will later become important.

    Step 1 of Building the IVAR Drawer Unit

    I was running out of room in the small storage room of my basement, but I wanted to build everything right there. The chest weighs 70 pounds, and I wouldn’t be able to move it myself if it was fully assembled in another room because it would be too bulky. (I wanted to build everything myself.) So I cleared a small area and got to work. The directions weren’t clear and attaching the drawer glides was confusing because you had to intuit everything from illustrations, but I figured it out. Drawer glides, attach the sides, slide in the backer, attach the last side, done. Time to build the individual drawers.

    Since I didn’t have much room, I figured I’d be clever and build just one and make sure it fit, attach the case to the shelving supports, then build the other two drawers. So I did. And that drawer slid in so smoothly into the middle slot. Success! I did a little dance and got back to work. The chest was heavy and cumbersome, but not impossible to get into place. (Again, I wanted to do this all myself.) I finally lined everything up just so, screwed the final brackets in place, and slid the drawer I’d already built into place. I put it in the lowest slot this time, then noticed the three-inch gap along the bottom. I chastised myself, channeling Brandon in my head with appropriate Star Wars nerdery, but apparently the phrase isn’t even “don’t get cocky, kid.” The “kid” part comes just before. I didn’t even get that right.

    Step 1 of Building the IVAR Drawer Unit

    I fumbled for the next 15 minutes turning the drawer upside-down, then removing the unit I’d just gotten into place and turning the whole thing upside-down, and still I couldn’t get my drawer to line up. Finally, I realized I’d attached the glides incorrectly. They had to be unscrewed, turned and flipped, and reattached. Remember step 1? Yeah, that’s where I screwed up. After I’d corrected my mistake, getting the chest back into place was much more difficult than it had been the first time. Of course it was more difficult! This is why people hate assembling IKEA furniture!

    Six hours after I’d started my shelving project, I got the chest and all three drawers into place, threw a few fake plastic trees on a corner shelf (sans green plastic watering can), and called it a day.

    IVAR Drawer Unit

    Now I’m steeling up my nerve to return to IKEA, brave the returns area, and get my stupid pegs so I can finish the storage shelving.

    hr 644

    Edited to add: Pegs! I’m an idiot. (Thanks, Amanda.) What would it take to convince everyone that this was an April Fool’s joke?

    IVAR Pegs