Ikea hack: Ektorp chair gets an easy makeover

Call me crazy but I recently took both my kids (4.5 and nearly 2) to Ikea by.my.self.   Did I mention it's an hour away?  Yeah okay...obviously, I was pretty desperate and of course impatient about getting this Ektorp Tullsta  chair I had my eye on for the corner of our master bedroom.

The chair is small so it doesn't take up much space (the main reason I like it!), makes a statement, and the off white material was a pretty close match to the drop cloth headboard I recently finished.  (Here's the tutorial for the DIY upholstered headboard.) At just $99 I decided I'd rather just buy it than get an old chair at a thrift store and go through the trouble of reupholstering it.  Sometimes it's just easier (and nearly as cheap) to start with something new and hack it...in this case it's a classic Ikea hack.

When I put the chair in the bedroom I was
instantly IN LOVE.  We've never had a reading nook in our bedroom and so I was really happy with what it did for the space. But I kept looking at it thinking it needed something more.  I had half a box of DADS upholstery nails left over from the headboard project so I decided to have at it.

I spaced the nails the same distance apart on the chair as I did on the headboard.  I love the finished look.  I think it really adds to the chair and it ties it into the room better than I could have even hoped.

 The billy bookcases are a classic Ikea hack, but this has to be even easier! It seriously took me about 10 minutes to literally hand push all the nails in.   I finished it up by adding one of the matching throw pillows (see the tutorial on how to make throw pillows from standard shams here) to the chair to add that little something extra.

Finally, I plan to stain the light tan wooden legs which come with the chair a darker color to match our bedroom furniture....but since that may be weeks or months down the line by the time I can get my kids off the chair - I figured I'd show off the Ikea chair with upholstery nails instead of making you wait for this beauty. 

Here's a look at how the bedroom is coming together...thanks to the nifty panoramic option on my iPhone.