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 finds – ready to see?! (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 {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. 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!
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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}.
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, 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 chair with {this 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.
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 a challenge!
If you missed any of my past posts from our My Five Favorites series, you can check them out here:
XO,
