New Velvet from IKEA

Apologies in advance if I'm one of many bloggers who post about this furniture. This one's going to make the rounds, but IT'S SO GOOD!

The new IKEA catalog dropped in my mailbox yesterday...a nice, thick catalog that only shows up maybe twice a year and reads more like a magazine than a catalog with product styled extraordinarily well. Now that's a big catalog worth getting.

But I digress...the new catalog introduces IKEA's latest iteration of its Stockholm collection...and there are VELVET covers in delicious colors. VELVET.

Just look at the Stockholm sofa in GREEN VELVET. Green. Velvet.

They have gone to a 3-cushion back and the legs, though still a bit MCM for me, are better. But forget that and look again at the GREEN VELVET.

And then, THEN, they have YELLOW VELVET in the new Stockholm swivel easy chair:

SWIVEL VELVET. It's just too much to take all at once.

I wouldn't hesitate for a second to pair said sofa with said chairs with all sorts of traditional burled-wood end tables, oil paintings and a kilim rug.

I think I need that sofa in my life. And two of the chairs. This is thrilling product, y'all.

Why are there no links you ask? IKEA has a bad habit of putting out catalogs with new items before they put these items up for availability online. Maybe they want folks in the stores first...who knows, but I did a long search on their website and these babies didn't come up.

But, check out the catalog by clicking here so you can see all the goodies in IKEA's new lineup! There are wing chairs!

» Click Here to Leave a Comment «

Catalog Pick: IKEA Storsele Chairs

Have you seen the Storsele chairs from IKEA? I recently found them and absolutely love their scale and shape.

They are handmade and have the charm of bentwood furniture yet their scale and high back give the chairs an air of Regency drama. Each is priced at $119. I think a pair of the natural tone chairs would be wonderful in a sunroom sitting area with some bright cushions. And the black chair would look great at either end of a modern dining table.

Have you bought this chair and used it? How do you or would you use it in your space?

» Click Here to Leave a Comment «

IKEA Hack: DIY Crib Bumper and Monogrammed Pillow

Mason's nursery was full of little projects, two of which were courtesy of some clever usage of inexpensive IKEA items.

I knew I wanted to use custom fabrics for the room's curtains and crib linens, but had I made a crib bumper or crib skirt before? No. And Julianne still trusted me to make hers? Yes. She is a good friend. Or maybe I just didn't tell her that I had never done it before.

I'm not sure where in the recesses of my brain I had stored this information (or why), but I recalled that IKEA has a fantastic, very simple crib bumper that I could use as my starting point. The Kompisar bumper is only $14.99, white, and very thin so it's easy to cover with fabric.

The short version of this story is that I took several strips of my 54" wide fabric, sewed them together to make two very long strips, and then sewed them right onto the crib bumper - one on the front and one on the back. I know that is not very helpful if you don't sew, but if you do sew, I hope that makes sense.

And if it does make sense, you can scroll to read about the monogram pillow now.

----------------------------------
If not, here are some more details.

First, I cut off the ties that come on the bumper. Later, when I installed the bumper, I made a note of where the ties should go according to the crib I was using and I sewed small strips of grosgrain ribbon to these spots for affixing the bumper to the crib. 

To cover the bumper, I used a sewing machine to essentially sew on strips of fabric to both of its sides.  I measured out six strips of 54" wide fabric - three of which were 2-3 inches taller that the bumper on top and bottom, and three of which were about the height of the bumper. I sewed the first three together on the short sides to make one very long strip of fabric that was 2-3 inches taller than the bumper on top and bottom so that I could essentially wrap this one piece of fabric around one side of the bumper and its edges - folding the fabric around the edges as I went. I sewed my seam about 1" inside of the bumper's edges to create the look of a welt. If you look at the picture, the bumper already has this kind of edge, so I basically just followed it.

Here is a picture of this strip of fabric wrapped around the bumper, and the placement of the needle shows about how far in I made this seam:

So I just sewed around this long, long rectangle until that piece was affixed. The bumper was longer than my strip of fabric, so I just cut off the excess bumper and finished up as usual around the raw edge. (When I initially tried out the plain bumper in the crib, I knew that it was a good bit longer than I needed, so I was safe chopping off the excess - make sure your crib doesn't need that extra length)

Then I took the three strips of fabric that were about the same height of the bumper and I also sewed their short sides together to make one long strip about the height of the bumper. For this strip, I did the same thing as the first in that I just sewed it right on to the bumper - but in this case, I didn't fold the fabric over the bumper's edges. Instead, I just folded down the strip's own edges to make a bit of a hem and sewed over this hem following the same seam I sewed on my earlier strip.

Let's recap - one long strip is taller than your bumper and this strip you wrap around the bumper, covering the edges. Then on the other side, you take the other long strip whose edges have been folded over to make a hem, and you sew this hem right on to the seam from the first strip (but this second strip doesn't fold around the bumper like the first).

Yes? Make sense? I didn't take good pictures, I know. Email me if you have questions.
-----------------------------------

The second, MUCH easier project was Mason's monogrammed pillow:

This pillow uses one of my absolute favorite, favorite items that IKEA sells - the 16x24 Fjadrar pillow insert! It's an amazing fluffy insert (I think it's down?? not sure) whose quality seems much higher than the price of $6.99. I LOVE it. Love it. 

In Mason's case, I also used the Sanela velvet pillow cover from IKEA, which comes in some really handsome colors - like navy, hunter and paprika - and only sets you back $7. I went with the taupe-ish color for baby M.

So, total, the velvet lumbar pillow is only $14. Bananas. And my secret to the monogram is felt and fabric glue....that's it.

Get yourself a piece of felt in the color of your choosing from any craft store. Find a font on your computer that you really like - I find that fat fonts work the best - and print out each letter. You'll have to play around with the sizing you want each letter to be.

Then cut out each letter to use as a guide on your felt. Pin the paper letter to your felt and follow its edges to cut out the felt letter. Then glue the felt letter right to the front of your pillow with fabric glue. I use Unique Stitch, but any fabric glue will work.

That's it! I will add a disclaimer that my letters are a bit more fancy than computer font. I actually drew the letters to make them look Leontine-esque in Illustrator and then printed them from there. Being a graphic designer does come in handy with projects like this, but you can definitely still do it using fonts you like from your computer.

More details on the room tomorrow!

» Click Here to Leave a Comment «

 

IKEA Console, Styled

So, the response was almost unanimous on yesterday's post. Most of you really loved the color and modern lines of the IKEA console. I myself am on team IC.

Which reminded me of one of the places I first fell in love with the potential of said console. Did you catch the Matters of Style post where MoS Charlotte showed us how the console spiced up her den?

I l-o-v-e these pictures....the styled console and the curtains are fantastic.

Images via Matters of Style

 

A wonderful accent to this room, don't you think? 

You will never go wrong with the straight, Parsons-ish lines of a piece like this table. Especially when mixed with more traditional elements. And this table could be a potential DIY, either to purchase and paint to a color that suits, or to recreate yourself (though, for time and materials, I doubt you'll beat IKEA's price of $80, though a handmade one might be better quality).

Thanks for your comments on Kimber's dining room - glad so many of you enjoyed it! There is one more board coming from her house...stay tuned.

$10 Loot

This pillow cover from IKEA has been the best $10 I've spent recently.

It's the Vilmie Figur cover and you can purchase it here. I also purchased the pillow insert, which brought my total up to a whopping $14...still a steal for this pillow. I am in love with its black-and-whiteness, its size, its texture, its pattern and its price.

I brought it home to use with another IKEA piece in our house - the Ektorp arm chair. I paired it with a lavender throw from Nate Berkus' line on HSN, and voila...

That chair is much happier now.

Other $10 pillow covers worthy of your attention are this one and this one.