Mid Century Modern Ikea Chair Hack No.2

This project was completed 12 weeks ago, right in the middle of most of the unpacking & kitchen renovation chaos, which means I was too distracted and excited to use my dslr and only documented its progress via instagram. What initially attracted me to attempt my first ever Ikea hack was this post by Our Mid Century. I just loved how they took a run of the mill Karlstad sofa and turned it into something sleek and vintage. While they had an upholsterer tackle all the button tufting, I decided to save the dough and go it alone. I'm proud to say that I had zero help with this karlstad chair. Everything from buying, putting together, changing the legs and button tufting- I accomplished by myself! Ok, so I had a little help from a random guy in the Ikea parking lot who, after watching me struggle in vain for a few minutes, helped me lift the boxes into my trunk.






Things of Note:
-I used this video to teach myself how to tuft.
-The legs are 6" tapers from DoItBest Hardware. I used 8" legs on the previous chair.
-Fabric samples from Ikea were used for the 24 buttons.
-I tufted both the front and back of both cushions for maximum wearability.

xxMaria

Mid Century Modern Ikea Chair Hack No.1

I began this project two weeks ago and it was pretty touch and go. Each step seemed to bring about a fresh mishap, but when all was said and done it was worth the effort. Cole and I have owned this Jennylund chair for about six years now. It has served us well in every apartment with its small size and survived most of our moves fairly well. As much as I liked the chair, I was bored with its style and limited slipcover options. Since I had already hacked an Ikea Karlstad chair (more next week), I figured I could attempt another. The only hitch this time around was that my first hack had lots of internet diy's to reference, but there wasn't a bit of info out there for what I wanted to attempt on the Jennylund. So I planned it out as best I could, crossed my fingers, and went for it.

Before-During-After:

The progression of the chair started with the old stained white slipcover, the first failed dye job and the finished project. Seeing all three photos lined up, the results are quite dramatic. I can hardly believe it's the same chair.

Inspiration:

My vintage rug was the color guide for the chair. I wanted something between the golden yellow and burnt orange shades found in the rug. I also wanted a shade that would contrast nicely with all the grey tones in the living room.

Dye #1:

The first dye job looked something like the above and turned out bad. I decided to use my porcelain bath tub and I do not recommend this for anyone with a non-porcelain tub. Also, if your tub, like mine, needs refinishing you'll be left with faint pee stains that are a biznitch to get out. Soft scrub helped.

Dye #2:

Using liquid dye is sooooo much easier. I used half of the cocoa brown and got exactly the shade I was hoping for. The tub now had brown poo-ish stains. More soft scrub to the rescue.

Upholstering the Chair:

-To wrap the skirt under the chair, Cole pulled the fabric tight and stapled it in place.
-Due to all the hot dying and washing, the slipcover had shrunk. I had to cut above the zipper to get the slipcover back on. I then created a patch with extra fabric cut from the skirt to cover the exposed area (not pictured).
-The old block legs were unscrewed and new brackets where screwed in place.
-I replaced the seat cushion with a pillow insert I found at JoAnn's on sale. The old cushion was just too hard and uncomfortable. The cushion is now very comfy but might need a thin layer of firmer foam on the bottom to create a more structured cushion.

Button Tufting:

Here's a quick guide on how I accomplished button tufting for the chair. I used pieces of masking tape with dots in the center to help gauge where I wanted to place the buttons. Once I had the mock spots in place I measured and measured again till I was happy.
-In the top left photo I marked the bottom and middle of the area I was using for tufting, then used those measurements as guides to ensure that the button placement was even and centered (top right photo).
-The middle two photos are of the back of the chair. Button tufting was a bit more complicated than normal since I had to some how puncture the wood backing of the chair without ruining the fabric. Cole first tried drilling through which created a mess since the stuffing surrounding the wood backing wound around the drill bit. Plus the first hole on the back (the one without tape) was not lined up with the front. Cole next tried hammering a nail through the wood (to create the necessary hole for the needle to pass through), which ended up working. In order to anchor the front buttons I had to use small buttons on the back.
-In the bottom two photos, I bought 1 1/8 buttons from JoAnn Fabrics and used excess fabric from the chair skirt to cover the buttons. On a random side note, I happened upon tights at Target that matched my dyed fabric!
-To learn how to button tuft, I recommend searching youtube. My favorite is this quick video.

The Final Step:

-The taper legs and brackets were bought from Do It Best hardware.
-I stained the legs with minwax Early American.



Whew. Check back next week for Hack No.2!!

xxMaria