Customized IKEA Barstools

I got a CB2 catalog in the mail a few weeks ago and immediately fell in love with these barstools. They are just a perfect mix of modern and rustic, with their rugged seats and crisp white iron legs. I wanted them badly. But unfortunately I didn't have $378 to spend on the most wonderful barstools I'd ever seen.

Thats when my wheels got turning to DIY something. I knew the first place to go- IKEA of course! The gigantic store with all kinds of goods just waiting to be "hacked". There I found the unfinished birch BOSSE barstool for $39.99. I had been wanting to experiment with stain for some time now, and this was my perfect chance.

I bought two of these guys, along with some Krylon white spray primer and
Fusion spray paint in satin white. I also got a little can of Minwax Wood Finish stain in Jacobean.

The first step was to just take everything out of the boxes. I laid out the chair frames on top of bricks and just got to paintin'. The primer and paint dries REALLY fast, so this took just a few hours for one coat of primer and about 1.5 coats of paint. I can't recommend highly enough that you don't skip the primer stage. The paint goes on so easily and covers so well after.

The scary part was the seats, since I haven't ever used stain before. Let me tell you if you haven't either, the stuff is messy. I would recommend latex gloves if you have 'em, because that stuff was in my fingernails for days. First, you want to sand the top of the seat REALLY WELL. I put my husband to work on this job after I realized I hadn't sanded hard enough. I'd recommend a pretty rough grit sanding block. The fine won't really do much. Get it really nice and even though, because you don't want any scratch marks showing up on the seat once the stain is on. Also make sure that after sanding, the item is free and clear of dust and debris.

I then put a coat of stain, using a foam brush and going in the direction of the grain, over the whole seat. I let it set for about 15 minutes, and then just buffed out the excess with a rag. It was tricky though, because by 15 minutes it's already starting to get gummy. I found the solution for that to be applying another coat of stain the opposite direction, and then only leaving that on for about 5 minutes or so before wiping off.

A few days later I applied two coats of Minwax Polycrylic with a nice brush. I was debating whether I even needed to do this step, but I'm glad I did because they look so much more finished now. Don't skip this step! It seals the stain and makes the wood look very finished.

 So maybe by now you'd like to see the finished product?

Total cost for the pair: under $100. I know my version isn't as cool and organic looking as the CB2 version, but I love mine, and my favorite part is the DIY :) I'm looking for other things to stain now too! 

A Relaxing Guest Bedroom

Aaron’s mom and aunt came to visit us a few weeks ago (more about that fun weekend later… it was project-filled) and that lit a fire under us to get our guest room acceptable for these very important guests. We started out with this:

So basically, rag rolled walls in two shades of orangey red, a barn wood chair rail, and western curtains. This room didn’t have much goin’ for it, in our opinion. I’m really careful about my thoughts on this room though, because I know that to the three little boys that shared this teeny tiny room before we lived here, this was probably the coolest room in history and I know their parents worked really hard on making it great for them. Anyhow.

I painted the room (and the chair rail) Silver Birch by Glidden. I was expecting it to be a lot more gray, but it kind of turned out as a really light, almost whitish gray. I’m still happy with it though, it makes the room really soothing. I originally planned to do the room in all yellow and gray, but then I started really liking a gray, yellow, and blue combination. I found some great bedding that I really loved at HomeGoods and went from there.

Since all we had was a futon up until this point, we needed to buy a bed for the room. I knew from the beginning that I really wanted the IKEA Leirvik bed, since Aaron thinks it is so girly and it would never fly in our bedroom. To make a really long story about mattress shopping short, we picked a great memory foam mattress at an amazing price from Denver Mattress, and switched out our old mattress into the guest room.

The day that we picked up the bed from IKEA, we were babysitting my parents dogs, so they were of course helping us put it together.

I found this perfect shade of aqua blue in the oops section at Home Depot at $6 for the gallon. I painted the nightstand that I mentioned here ($30, thrifted) with it and the shelves that were already hung in the room.

    

           

So, here’s what we’ve come up with for now!

  

 

Paint: Silver Birch by Glidden, color matched to Behr Premium Plus Ultra, about $35
Bedding: quilt, duvet, shams, and decorative pillows all by Hillcrest at HomeGoods, purchased with a gift card.
Lamp: $29.99 at HomeGoods
Nightstand: $30.00 at Next to New, updated with a $7 oops paint.
Shelves: already in room, updated with $7 oops paint.
Curtains: Target, already owned
Curtain rod: Wal-Mart, already owned
Bed: Ikea Leirvik, $99.99
Desk: West Elm at Pottery Barn Outlet (it was around $50, bought in January)

Our total out of pocket for this room was about $200. Not bad! I still have plans for things on the walls, and those shelves.