Ikea LÄTT makeover

The laughter of a child is the light of the home.

Fall has been crazy busy! I'm in the process of co-hosting a kids Halloween party with one of my besties. I'm also coordinating a surprise party for my father that will take place in early November. Then there are church obligations and my desire to have ALL my Christmas shopping done by the end of October and...well...

It's more than a little hectic.

We're still working on our home office. The paint is finally done and now we're installing shelves and adding wall art. I need to make a window treatment for the window, too. I'll be glad when the office is done because I am so ready to move on to our master bedroom!

When we went to Ikea to pick up the shelving, we also purchased the Ikea LÄTT children's table and chair set for $19.99. I'd come across so many gorgeous makeovers of this set on Pinterest and I was inspired to do my own. Baby J is 16 months old (today!) and I thought this would be a perfect little set for him. After some tweaking, of course.

This is the obligatory "before" shot from the Ikea site.

I'd bought a yard of some fun and colorful argyle fabric from Hobby Lobby a week or two before this project. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it - only that I had to do SOMETHING with it. Since it matches the color scheme of our living room, I thought it was perfect for the seats.

While my husband was busy covering the table and chairs with primer, I went to work on the chair seats. I used some foam that I bought from Joann's to pad the seats and give them some cushion for Baby J's tush. I used some double sided tape to keep the foam in place as I stapled the fabric to the seat. I used a regular stapler and after many tries, realized that I could use it as if the seat was a piece of paper. The fabric was pulled taut and stayed in place and there were no sharp or pointy things that could cause injury.

After two coats of spray primer and two coats of Rust Oleum dark walnut spray paint, my husband had the fun task of placing the covered seats into the chair. It was a bit of a struggle but in the end, Husband prevailed.

He then took the chairs outside to seal them. We even sprayed the fabric with sealant. Here is the end result:

Ta-Da!

We're so tickled with our little project! I haven't decided whether or not I'll be adding something to the tabletop. I saw some red vinyl at Joann's that would look great on top and would add some durability, too. I'm also considering chalkboard paint or Con-Tact paper.

I'll be putting up some sort of racks for books the left at some point. This is the corner where we place our Christmas tree, so everything we do here has to be removable. Thank goodness for Command hangers!