IKEA Hacks

So... What's a girl to do on a tight budget, with an empty apartment, and a specific design vision? Why hack her way through the IKEA store of course! As this is my first apartment, I have SO much furniture that I need to buy, and that is where IKEA comes in handy. I love their stuff, but when buying it in mass quantity it can often leave one's home looking a bit IKEAtastic and like one of the pages from their catalog! Hence why I took it upon myself to hack several of the IKEA accessory items that I had purchased. This way I could have an item that matched the design style I was going for, but was still in my price range. Why none of my IKEA hacks are earth shattering, and I don't even technically consider them hacks (more like stylish embellishments!), I do think they show how you can customize a very ordinary IKEA item and make it something totally stylish and unique. 

The Lamp: I had been wanting a mercury glass lamp forever, but all of the ones I found were in the 100+ dollar price range (way out of my budget for a lamp!). Then I stumbled upon some DIY instructions over at Weddingbee Pro, and I started to get excited. Perhaps a mercury glass lamp wasn't out of the picture after all! Then I came across the Jonsbo Orod lamp at IKEA and my dream came true! The mirror glass spray paint proved a bit tricky to find (try looking in the glass painting section of your craft store though - NOT the spray paint section, which is where my "issues" stemmed from), but once I found it the lamp was super easy to make and it looks incredible in person!! 

The Boxes: I wanted some sort of stylish storage on the cheap, and something that looked a bit different than say a wicker basket, but also something that in a couple years if it fell apart or I needed to get rid of it I wouldn't necessarily be super upset. I love the look of the Kassett boxes, but none of the colors matched the look I wanted to achieve. Anyways, I snatched up several of the white ones and decided to think upon how to make them special. Then I remembered I had some great wrapping paper at home. So with my trusty glue stick in hand I went to work. I covered the boxes pre-assembly and then used an exacto knife to cut around the silver details. End result = AMAZING! 

The Curtains: We have really tall ceilings in our apartment. And really LARGE (which is totally awesome) but very BORING windows. We knew we wanted to dress up our space with splashes of hot pink, and IKEA was stocking products in just the shade we were looking for! We picked up a pair of the Felicia curtains in dark pink and a pair of the Aina curtains in the unbleached fabric (which totally fit our need to provide a bit of privacy in our front room but  still let in the natural light which is so amazing in our space). Since the Aina curtains weren't anywhere near long enough to fit our windows we chopped up the Felicia curtains and used them as fabric. By adding the hot pink on the bottom we created a curtain that looks extra special. It now pulls the room together by adding an extra pop of our accent color. The curtains are now long enough to puddle on the floor and with the added sparkle of the Felicia "fabric" we got the sophisticated somewhat casual glamourous look we wanted... and what girl doesn't want a little glamour in her life! 

The Pillow: I can't take credit for this one, as it is all the roommate's doing, but I will fill you in on what she did. It is simply the Felicia curtains again cut up and used as fabric and sewn into a pillow case, inside is a pillow form from IKEA (although I can't figure out which one it is from online... sorry). In order to make the pillow have that little something extra, my roommate cut up the tie back (it's the same hot pink as the curtains but it has this really incredible gold flowery swirl pattern all over it) and attached a strip of it to the front of the pillow. Voilà! 

So... Swoonette says:

• Don't judge an IKEA product by it's looks and function, instead think of IKEA as a place to purchase "materials"
• Don't be afraid to cut things up, paint things, or add on any embellishments that you may like
• The fact that IKEA products come disassembled makes it easier to be more creative 
• Since IKEA furniture is fairly inexpensive, and far from a family heirloom, there is no need to become distraught by hacking away at things  
• And if you need a little extra inspiration be sure to check out IKEA hacker