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 good bargain and IKEA is one of my favorite places to score them! Today I’m sharing my five all-time favorite IKEA finds! (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here}))
1. My Outdoor IKEA KLASEN Bar Cart
I bought IKEA’s KLASEN serving cart 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:
2. The IKEA AINA Drapes / Curtains on Our 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 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 closet makeover in my post on using curtains instead of closet doors.
3. 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. People often ask I can live with a white sofa with a dog and kids and 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 had our EKTORP for over five years and it held up extremely well – definitely some good bang for the buck! We also recently got an IKEA EKTORP sectional for our house in North Carolina that we love too! Update: IKEA updated the EKTORP to make it a bit deeper (a great move!) and renamed it the UPPLAND – you can find it {here}.
4. 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 it anymore) 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, 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!).
5. 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 chair with a long slipcover in Blekinge White and dressed it up by having the back of it monogrammed with her initials. The chair is paired with {this white IKEA MICKE desk} that she’s had for years.
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you have a favorite IKEA find, don’t even think about leaving my blog without letting me know about it!
XO,
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