Ikea Lamp Hack DIY Tutorial

I took this ordinary lamp that had been sitting by my daughter's bed for about a year, and decided to add a couple simple touches to it to turn it into a fabulous vintage piece.

 

This Lampan Table Lamp from Ikea costs $4.99 (that's right!!!). It comes in white, pink, and turquoise. I liked the simplicity of the white when I bought it. I didn't have any intentions of doing anything to the lamp, but it took me about a year for a light bulb (no pun intended) to come on.

 

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 Supplies needed:

 

-Ikea Lampan table lamp

-E-6000 glue and/or hot glue gun (I used both)

-extra fabric, decorative items like washi tape, lace, pom pom fringe, etc.

 

That's it!

 

First Step:

I detached the lamp shade from the base (very easy, in fact it comes like that when you buy it). All I did was use the E-6000 glue around the top of the shade to attach the lace.

 

Second Step:

I used a hot glue gun to attach the pom pom fringe around the bottom of the shade. I applied hot glue directly to the lamp shade then carefully placed the fringe around it bit by bit. It was one long piece of pom pom fringe that I cut at the very end once I knew I had enough to cover the entire shade.



 

 

And voila! It totally transformed this $5 lamp into something so much cuter! Once I let the glue dry, I plugged it in to see what it looked like.

 

 
I love how it turned out. It's so dainty, vintage-looking, and fun in my daughter's bedroom. It no longer looks like a simple white lamp.

  

 

I experimented with adding washi tape to the rest of the lamp shade but decided against it, I liked the simple vintage look with the lace and pom pom fringe. 

 

 
The lace also gives it a cool look when it's dark in the room and the light's on. Definitely a cozy addition to reading time before bed!

Favorite Finds at Target/Walmart/Ikea/Thrift Stores

Here are some of my favorite recent finds at Target, Walmart, Ikea, and our local second-hand stores:

Chef's Hat and Apron from Walmart- $5

Vera Bradley Wristlet

Target Thank You Cards

Ikea Fruit Basket

Circo Night Light from Target

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70185750/

Ikea Canopy- Found at Thrift Store for $6!

Ikea Hanging Storage Compartment

Ikea Boxes- Set of 6

Mossimo Supply Co. Ripstop Crossbody Bag

Ikea Window Bench Storage Containers

These are our window benches made from Ikea Expedit shelves. See my tutorial here: Ikea No-Sew Window Bench Tutorial.

Almost as important as the fabric you choose for the cushion are the storage containers you choose to go inside the openings. These openings are about 13'x13'x15' so pretty large. It's hard to find that size of storage bin/container for cheaper than $15. And we had 10 spaces to fill! So we were definitely looking for something much more affordable.

These storage containers are actually made to fit this exact shelf from Ikea. I didn't initially see them in the store when I was there, but found them online and had them shipped to my house. They are Ikea's Drona Box. They fit perfectly. And the best part? They are only $4.99 each! It was impossible to find another storage container close to that price. They come in several colors, but we went with white. I've even seen other people get these containers then spray paint numbers/letters/etc. onto them. The possibilities are endless. 

For our 2nd window bench that is in our living room, I wanted storage containers that looked a little nicer. Don't get me wrong, the Ikea boxes look great and will hold up for a long time, but I saw another container that I instantly wanted. It's Target's Theshold Storage Bin. They also come in 3 colors, we went with the Natural color. Only down side is that they cost $12.99 each. I have a Target Red Card so I got an additional 5% off. You can wait until they go on sale if you'd like to chance getting the color/amount you want.

Did I mention that they hold A TON of stuff? It's an easy and convenient place to store toys, blankets, books, etc.

For more pictures of our nursery, check out my Nursery Reveal Here!

Ikea No-Sew Window Bench Tutorial

I've had many requests to do a Window Bench tutorial from my Nursery Reveal post. It was something I saw myself on pinterest and other blogs but had a hard time finding a good tutorial, and there's nothing more I'd like than for you to make one yourself! It has made such a big difference in our nursery and our living room. That's right, we made two!

Window Bench in our Girls' room

Window bench in our living room

Here are the finished products, don't you love the way they turned out? I love that you can customize it to whatever your taste in decor is.

I love this window bench for so many reasons:

1- It creates a high enough bench that my girls can look out the window. They love looking outside.
2- It provides a comfortable place to sit and read books, play, rest, etc.
3- The storage containers hold so many toys, blankets, etc. It helps keep clutter down and it's easy to clean things up now by just putting them away in the storage bins.
4- The bench in our living room adds 4-5 more seats for adults.
5- We made it ourselves! There is so much satisfaction in completing a project like this.

So on to the tutorial:

The first thing you will need is an Ikea Expedit Shelving Unit.
They come in different colors, but we preferred white. Follow the Ikea instructions for putting the shelving unit together. My husband did it within a few minutes, it was easy.

UPDATE: The Expedit Shelving Unit is no longer available from Ikea, however, the Kallax shelving unit is available and if it had been when I made my window benches, I would have used it because it is a little bit shorter with 4 openings instead of 5.

Next you'll need at least 2 sets of Ikea Capita Legs. We got the 4 inch ones which made the window bench plenty tall. It's the perfect height for kids to be able to climb up on the bench, and for adults to sit on it. We got 3 sets of Capita legs because we made two window benches.

They are easy to screw into the bottom of the Ikea Expedit shelf. We put the legs on each end and in the middle of the bench, totaling 6 legs.

Once the legs are attached to the shelving unit, you will need a piece of MDF board and foam. We got our MDF board cut at Home Depot (for free) to the dimensions of the shelving unit. The board cost us less than $15 and we had enough for both window benches with some board left over.

Here is some advice for the piece of foam. DO NOT buy your foam through a craft store like Hobby Lobby, Joann's, Michael's, etc. It costs way too much! I found a piece of foam at Smith's Marketplace for $20 which was big enough for 2 window benches. They had smaller sizes too so if you are just making one window bench, you can easily find a piece of foam for probably $10 or less at a hardware store or a similar store. 

You will need to cut the foam to fit the bench. Just place the piece of foam on top of the bench, use a Sharpie marker to mark the edges, then use a kitchen carving knife (electric) or whatever you have to cut the foam. 

We cut the foam to these dimensions:
72 inches long
15 inches wide
3 inches high

The only cut we had to make was to cut the foam piece in half length wise. It was already the proper dimensions pretty much. So we got 2 bench-seats worth of foam out of one piece.

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Now comes the cushion part of the bench. Several tutorials I saw skipped this step, but I would recommend adding quilt batting first, before the fabric. I bought a humongous bag of quilt batting at Walmart for about $5. First set the piece of quilt batting on the floor/table/bench, then the foam, then the MDF board. 

We actually stapled the fabric to the board/foam without the quilt batting the first time, then realized it didn't look very good. We could see bumps and areas where the foam wasn't quite straight, and it was hard to get the fabric tight enough. So we removed the staples and fabric and added the quilt batting.

Then simply stretch the quilt batting over the edges of the foam and MDF board and staple it with a staple gun! This was actually really fun. I found that by adding quilt batting, it provided a tighter surface area to stretch the final fabric over, which helped keep it nice and tight fitting.

After stapling the quilt batting, you will repeat the step but using fabric this time. You can choose any type of fabric you want. For the window bench in our nursery, we chose Pearl bracelet Andover fabric in Citron color . I had previously cut it and ironed it for a smooth surface once it was stapled on.

How much fabric do you need? I purchased 2 1/2 yards of fabric for each window bench. It was a little more than I needed, but I didn't want to cut it close, and I have a little bit left over if I need it in the future.

For our living room bench, we chose Waverly Sun N Shade Lovely Lattice in Lagoon color. I can't tell you how long it took me to decide on which fabric to use. I would suggest waiting until you absolutely fall in love with something. 

Tip #1: When choosing fabric, I would recommend a sturdy type, such as the Waverly Fabric I chose for our living room bench. It's an indoor/outdoor fabric made of durable Teflon-coated polyester fabric. It's breathable, will hold up to harsh sunlight, resist mold, mildew, soil, and stains. And they are easy to wipe off and clean. 

The fabric we chose for our nursery, the Pearl bracelet fabric, is a simple cotton fabric. I fell in love with the print that I decided to go with it even though the fabric itself isn't very sturdy. This may prove to be a mistake in the future, we'll have to see. I can already tell a huge difference in quality of the fabrics I chose, and would recommend going with a sturdy indoor/outdoor type of fabric.

Tip #2: When choosing fabric, I highly suggest viewing it in person to get the most accurate coloring/texture. There were many samples that I saw online but once I saw it in real life, the coloring was completely different. If you can't go see it for yourself in a craft store, then ask the seller to send you an actual picture in natural light. Both of the fabrics we chose were not available in my area, but the computer image compared to an actual picture of the fabric in natural light was such a huge difference, the difference between choosing it and not. 

Continuing on:
Pull the fabric tightly over the edge of the foam/board and staple it down. I actually folded the fabric so that the staple had 2 layers to grab onto to help prevent tearing in the future. 

 

 I found it was easier to stretch the fabric tighter when it was on a slippery surface like the top of the Expedit shelf, rather than on the carpet. You will want to pull and stretch the fabric generously to ensure the final product is tight with no puckering.

The corners got a little tricky, I had to experiment folding the fabric down different ways so it wouldn't pucker. When I finally found something that worked, I went to town staple gunning it down.

There you have it! The cushion is now complete with the MDF board, foam, quilt batting, and fabric. 

The final step is to attach the cushion part to the actual bench. 

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Simply grab some 3 inch screws, and screw them into the MDF board from underneath the bench. We screwed 2 into each end, plus another set in the middle to hold it on tight.

And waaalah! You have a beautiful window bench! Now that wasn't too hard was it? We will enjoy many years of fun with these window benches.







For more information on the storage containers/bins I chose for my window benches, look HERE.