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Ikea hack: Poang chair recover with paint and a custom cover

Follow along as I share how I recovered a Craigslist find for the nursery. I made new covers and after some paint, this IKEA hack was the perfect chair for the nursery! I used foam, fabric, and some snaps to make the custom cover that matches the other chevron fabric from the rest of the room.

ikea poang cover

As I shared in my last post, I have a lot of projects I finish before going to bed rest that I never got to share here, so I am going to start with one I wish I would have taken pictures of the process. I know not a lot of people would not go the DIY route especially when it's just an Ikea chair, but as you all know I love renovating them!

For the nursery I knew I wanted the poang chair, at first I wanted the rocking chair version, but in one visit to Ikea, I tried both and found the rocking version uncomfortable for me (I'm pretty tall) to get up easily.

Ofcourse on that trip to Ikea I did not get the chair, since I had months before I was actually going to start with the nursery, I hunted on Craiglist until I found the chair and the footstool for $20, but with no covers.

That was actually perfect because I wanted to make my own cushions and covers anyway. I wanted a thinker foam because I figured I'll be on that chair a lot, the price of the chair and covers I wanted at Ikea would have been $198 ($129 for the chair and $69 for the footstool) but I actually spent only $60 on mine making the cushions from scratch thanks to holiday sale coupons =] I say pretty good!

ikea poang cover

I also decided to paint the structure and made all the covers very easy to remove because I figured I'll be washing it very often, I decided to attach it to the chair differently, so that the back will be covered with fabric, it seemed a lot clearer to me than the original Ikea covers.

ikea hack

Below you can see both the footstool and chair together, I used the ZigZag twill storm print from Premier prints (you will see a lot of that fabric in the nursery) I used a 3″ thick foam for the cushions and them I wrap it on lots of batting. I made plain white covers for the cushions and then the cover in the fancy fabric.

ikea poang
ikea hack chair
custom cover ikea

For the back I actually made 3 separate cushions that are “tied together”by the cover, 2 small ones for the top that are in the slip portion of the cover, they have back snaps so that the cushions don't end up all over the place, and a bottom one that goes in the pocket of the front. To close the back I also added snaps so that the look would be more uniform.

custom cover for ikea poang
ikea poang details

The bottom piece has a zipper that secures the cushion inside the cover and has side straps that overlap to secure the bottom piece to the chair, I also secured them with snaps.

poang recover snaps
ikea poang cover

I really liked the way it turn out and even tho the fabric is pretty light, the fact that the covers are easy to take and wash makes it a lot better. I've been sitting there a lot to “test” it out just holding Curly and so far I am loving it! Ken also loves it but for some reason he likes to lay on the center rug of the nursery more than the chair hehe.

details ikea hack
ikea poang cover

I hope this inspire someone else to also try the DIY route, it's so much cheaper and of course I love the fact that you can customize the shape of the covers.

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend!!
XOXO

ps. I'm having lots of contractions but no baby yet! Tomorrow is my due date so we'll see if this little peanut wants to come soon =]

Sor Angela

Monday 4th of January 2016

Blessings. I found your poang chair on Pinterest, and I love it. Please can you tell us the snaps you'd used to keep the cushion from sliding. I love to make them the same as you, but with other fabric, although I love it, my grandchildren won't keep them clean for long. I also browsed through your blog, and I must congratulate you for the beautiful family and all your handy postings. Thanks.

Ashey

Thursday 16th of July 2015

Wow! I LOVE Pöang chairs but have never been crazy about the patterns! However, i am no where near crafty enough to make this! I wish you had an Etsy shop or something to purchase it! Great job!

Darren

Friday 20th of March 2015

You can earn some extra $$ from your page, i see couple opportunities here. You should search in google for: Yoogurn's money making

Kaity

Thursday 10th of July 2014

I wanted to come back and thank you for the inspiration! I saw your chair and was inspired to make my own and it was so worth it. The cushions are so much more comfortable than the ones at Ikea.

http://engineeringahome.wordpress.com/2014/07/10/diy-poang-chair-cushions/

Carissa

Monday 24th of February 2014

Hey there! Would you be willing to make a step by step tutorial for these cushions? It is a great idea but how you did it is kind of unclear. Thanks!

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