It's Black It's White - Pimping Up Ikea Basic Stools

Materials: 2 Marius black Ikea Stools , 2 Ikea Cilla Cushions , 1 Meter Sara Lisa Black and White Ikea Fabric, Hot Glue Gun

Description: We have 2 basic Ikea stools in our home and they are at the entrance. We use them to sit on and put on shoes etc. They were annoying me simply because of their lack of any aesthetic value they added to the area. So I had this thought of decided to give it a try. I was very happy with the outcome and also how they brighten up the area they were in.

How to do it:

Step 1: Assess your stool.. then place the cushion on top of the stool and cut out the bit of fabric you will need to fit and cover it. Be a bit generous as it's always good to have a bit more instead of a bit less.

Step 2: Heat up your glue gun. Place the cushion on top of the stool seat and keep lifting it up and putting the hot glue between the seat and the cushion and pressing it down immediately. I realised hot glue cools very fast and doing it this way ensures you can quickly stick the cushion to the seat.

Step 3: Lay your fabric down print facing the floor and then put your stool upside down with the cushion on the back of the fabric. Make slits to the fabric in accordance with where the legs of the stool will come and then pick up your glue gun and start gluing the fabric to the underside of the stool seat. When doing so try and ensure that there are no creases and that the you neatly fold the fabric on the sides.

Step 4: The back of the stool doesn't look the prettiest and in the case of an Ikea stool you can screw off the legs in the beginning and when you are done with the seat put a piece of material over it or a cut out board. Lazy me I've just left it as I don't really think people will be looking under the stool. But once you are done with you're gluing ... Voila! You have a set of nice to funky stools and in my case definitely made the entrance a bit more attractive than it was previously.

Price wise 2 stools were 90 Nok (that's 2 cups of coffee here in Norway) The fabric 50 Nok, the Cushions 100 Nok also both from Ikea and the glue another 50. So in about 300 Nok I have 2 fun stools.

Time Taken: 2.5 Hours in One evening To do both Stools

See more of the stools.

~ Helen Issar, Oslo, Norway