My Five Favorite IKEA Finds (That You Don’t Want to Leave the Store Without)!

I’m all about spending what I need to for quality furniture if it’s a “forever” kind of piece, but I also love a great bargain and IKEA is one of my favorite places to score big! Today I’m sharing my all-time favorite IKEA scores as part of this month’s My Five Favorites series with Pam of Simple Details, Lisa of Shine Your Light, Jennifer of Dimples & Tangles, and our guest host, Rhoda of Southern Hospitality. Rhoda has been blogging since before most people knew what a blog was and after meeting her this summer I can say that in addition to being one of the longest blogging bloggers, she’s also one of the kindest and is full of Southern charm! I’m loving that she’s joining us today because she’s got some great things to share – she actually did an entire kitchen remodel using IKEA cabinets:

Thanks so much for joining us Rhoda! Now let’s get started and check out my favorite IKEA finds…  ((post includes some affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here}))

My Outdoor IKEA KLASEN Bar Cart

Last year I bought IKEA’s KLASEN serving cart (in store {here} and online {here}) to have a place for my husband to put his plates and grilling tools next to the grill and also to have a spot for a drink station when we have friends over to hang out on our patio. The KLASEN is the perfect size, I love the stainless/black combo, and this baby weathered like a champ after being left out on the patio covered in snow all winter long! 

I also love that it has a bar where you can hang a towel or two and also a bottom shelf that perfectly fits the galvanized tub we use for drinks:

If you want to check out the rest of our patio, you can see our whole outdoor entertaining area {here}.

The IKEA AINA Drapes / Curtains on Our Master Bedroom Closet

When I decided to take off the annoying bifold doors on our closet and replace them with curtains, I wanted curtains that were lightweight and didn’t take up much space when pulled all the way back – IKEA’s AINA linen curtains (in-store {here}) ended up doing the job perfectly and for linen drapes these suckers are cheap! They come in a pretty long length (98″) so for most purposes you’ll need to hem them but that’s a simple 15 minute no-sew job – IKEA includes hemming tape with the curtains but I hemmed mine with Stitch Witchery only because I’d used it many times before.

The only stumbling block with the white AINA drapes (FYI they come in a few other colors too) is that they were a little more ivory than what I was going for. I solved that problem by using RIT to get them a shade whiter – I had never used it before but it ended up working really well!

You can read more details about what I did with the RIT and check out the sources and pics of my “before” and “after” closet makeover {here}.

My Living Room IKEA EKTORP Sofa

Of course I couldn’t post about my favorite IKEA finds without gushing about the IKEA EKTORP in our living room. I actually have the IKEA 3-seat EKTORP sectional that I converted to a sofa – it’s pretty much the same as the IKEA EKTORP sofa except it’s about a foot longer. You can read more about how I converted my sectional to a sofa {here}. The question I get asked the most about our sofa is how I can live with a white sofa and still have kids and a dog. Honestly, this is the easiest sofa to take care of that I’ve ever had. The entire sofa is slipcovered so I simply take off all of the cushion covers and the couch cover every couple of months and throw it in the wash. I take it out of the dryer when it’s damp dry and wrangle it back on the sofa and it looks as good as new! 

A hand-held steamer (I have {this steamer}) does wonders for getting out any wrinkles once the slipcovers are back on. We’ve had our EKTORP for over three years now and it’s held up really well – definitely some good bang for the buck!

My Guest Room Fabric-Covered IKEA TRYSIL Chest 

One great thing about IKEA is that they have a lot of inexpensive basic pieces that you can get crafty with and customize to look like higher-end, expensive pieces. Several years ago after seeing a beautiful fabric-covered chest of drawers that was selling for over $1500, I bought an IKEA TRYSIL chest (sadly they don’t carry the chest anymore but you can find the TRYSIL nightstand {here}) and covered it with fabric on my own! 

There was a lot of trial and error involved but in the end I was thrilled with how it turned out! I’m always changing up what’s on top of the chest but right now I have {this birch woods art piece}, a wood lamp ({this lamp} is similar), some fabric covered books, and a tissue box covered with {this monogrammed linen cover}. 

The drawer pulls are {these classic ring pulls}. You can see more of my favorite knobs and pulls {here} and get the step by step tutorial for how I covered the chest with fabric {here} – just excuse my horrible photography from back them (yikes!). 

My Daughter’s HENRIKSDAL Slipcovered Chair and MICKE Desk

When I made over my teen daughter’s bedroom a year and a half ago (you can see the full “before” and “after” reveal {here}), the grasscloth wallpaper on her walls took up most of the budget so I had to go cheap on her new chair. IKEA to the rescue! I went with the HENRIKSDAL slipcovered chair in Blekinge White and dressed it up by having the back of it monogrammed with her initials. The chair is paired with a white IKEA MICKE desk that she’s had for years – IKEA doesn’t sell this exact desk anymore but they still have two similar MICKE desks that you can see {here}.

So I guess those are my five favorites… seriously you guys I have so many things from IKEA that I love that picking only five is pretty much impossible. So guess what? I’m totally cheating and throwing in just a few more quickies because they’re too good not to share (psst… don’t tell my co-hosts 🙂 . I also love:

My IKEA SOFIA Acrylic-Coated Fabric Outdoor Tablecloth

IKEA sells acrylic-coated fabric by the yard that is the perfect material for a cut-to-fit outdoor tablecloth. I love the SOFIA black and white acrylic-coated fabric and used it to cover our patio table all summer long last year:

The IKEA KVARNVIK Storage Boxes in our Bookcase

The IKEA KVARNVIK boxes are my favorite inexpensive storage boxes – they come in four sizes and both gray and white colors and they look so much more expensive than they are. We have four of the small gray ones holding office supplies in the little cubbies of our built-in home office bookcase:

And we have them on our TV stand in the basement for DVDs, cables, and other TV accessories. Not only do I love the gray burlapy texture of the outside but how super cute is the inside too?!

IKEA’s VOLMAR Swivel Chair at our Family Room Desk 

Last one – I promise! When looking for a desk chair for the desk in our family room, I wanted something pretty and my husband wanted something comfortable and functional (story of my life!). We compromised on IKEA’s VOLMAR swivel chair that you can get with or without armrests. I actually really like the fabric which is a subtle patterned gray and white. The base of it isn’t the prettiest but all of the gadgetry of going up and down, controlling the tilt, etc. makes my husband happy so it’s been a good compromise. Oh and the dog on the desk? Seriously, can you say ridiculously spoiled?!

You can check out more pics of our family room in my “before” and “after” family room reveal post {here}. OK, I’m done now… really! It’s time to hop over and check out my friends’ favorite IKEA finds – I can’t wait to find a few more must-haves for my next IKEA trek!

Pam – Simple Details

Jennifer – Dimples & Tangles

Lisa – Shine Your Light

Rhoda – Southern Hospitality

And if you missed any of my past posts from our My Five Favorites series, you can check out my five favorite decorative accessories {here}:

 and my other My Five Favorites posts here:

XO,