DIY: $20 Ikea Chair

Ikea: Ivar

For the longest time now I have been looking for the perfect chair for my office desk.  I still don't know what I want and I am wiling to put in a lot of time and effort to customize but since it has taken so long for the chair to find me I had to go out and find a temporary chair.  I was using one of those exercise/balance balls for the longest time but found that I accomplished nothing while sitting on it so while I was at Ikea picking up some butcher block for a project, my friend and I wandered over to the chairs to find the temporary fix.  And the winner was the Ikea Ivar coming in at $20.   It is the cheapest, crappiest chair ever.  I cannot even begin to explain how light it is but it holds my weight and is a great, cheap blank slate.

My original plan was to pad and upholster it (or at least create a sleek slip cover) but finding the time to figure it out has been far and few in between so last weekend I finally decided to do something quick and easy.

Since it was so cheap I wanted to do something fun so I bought some turquoise spray paint and went to down on this sucker.

From the above cap color I was hoping for a toned down fun but in reality it came out quite bright.....just a little too much color.  Hmmm...maybe a nice seat cushion will help.

Now again I went for easy....like a monkey could do it easy....

So I took an old seat cushion that was heading to goodwill and decided to wrap it in fabric - as in literally wrap it like a present and yes - hot glue it together.......you think I am crazy right now but I have been sitting on it and it has held up perfectly.

just like a christmas present....

I think it turned out well.

(this photo is more washed out - more the color I was intending)

(In reality this chair is still BRIGHT)

So I decided to paint the whole chair white and take my sander to it to reveal both the turquoise and the natural wood......

Here is the chair before the massive sanding which is still its current state.  It is more washed out but that is the way I like it.  This room is more soft and well feminine.

Here is a small test/peak at the turquoise showing through.....That was all I was able to accomplish before I was summoned to paint the living room.  So this weekend I will whip out the electric sander and give this puppy a buff....come back and check it out.

Thanks for visiting!!