This DIY sofa is our favourite IKEA hack of all time, and you can do it too
Instead of hunting for the perfect sofa in the shops, blogger, Krys, upcycled her own using a basic IKEA design and a few extra bits from Amazon. Krys went for a pink design, but we can all use this as inspiration to create a statement piece of furniture that suits our home and taste. Here's how she did it...
When Krys from the blog Melodrama started her search for a new sofa, she had her eye on an IKEA Karlstad sofa she found in the clearance section. Then she took that plain white base and turned it into the millennial pink sofa of her dreams with just $50 (£44) more.
Since the Karlstad comes with a removable slip cover and wasn't a huge investment, she knew it was the perfect candidate for an IKEA hack. If you can't find a Karlstad in the shop, you'll be happy to hear that there are lots of second hand Karlstads on eBay and Gumtree for extremely low prices, making this hack even more thrifty.
"The one I bought had a grey cover and my IKEA was sold out of the white slip cover," Krys told HouseBeautiful.com. "Luckily my best friend found one at her store and was able to send it to me."
Here's what it looked like before:
Like most DIY projects, Krys's first attempt to dye it millennial pink with Rit Dye in "petal pink" (£7.15, Amazon) ended up a little too hot pink so she used a colour remover (£2.99, Amazon) to get the slip cover back to white and started again.
This time she blended together several different shades of Rit Dye in "petal pink," "lemon yellow" and "tan."
"I can't tell you the exact ratios of these colours that I used for my shade because I was constantly adjusting and testing the colour," Krys says. "I want to say it was something like 4 parts pink, 1/2 part yellow, 1/8 part tan, but I'm not 100% sure so don't come back yelling at me if yours turns out gross. I also diluted it a lot more than the first time so the colour would be more pastel."
While you might not be able to find it at your local store, Amazon does sell a "rose quartz" Rit Dyy (£6.57) that looks several shades lighter than the "petal pink" Krys originally used and might do the trick without having to mix a custom colour.
After getting the colour just right, Krys spray painted mid-century style furniture legs in gold and white and attached them to the base of the sofa for a little extra detailing. We found similar ones on Amazon for just £4.49 each.
For the final touch, she added tufted buttons to the back of the couch by using a button cover kit (£4.85, Amazon) and thread and extra scraps of fabric she also found in the IKEA clearance bin.
All in all, the entire project cost less than £300 for an entirely original-looking sofa. See more DIY details over at Melodrama.
Browse our range of Country Living sofas here.
You Might Also Like
