Amara's little table makes me so very happy. The $20 Ikea Latt table just begs for a makeover and it's got hacks for days. This awesome Latt Hacker had the genius idea of inlaying a lovely design from Paper Source and gave awesome instructions on how to do it. I also used the great instructions from another cool DIYer for the seat cushions.
For the makeover I needed...
- CUSHIONS
- 1 inch foam from Joanne Fabrics. Don't buy green if you're using light fabric! I made that mistake and the green showed right through the white fabric. I cut up one of Brad's white tee shirts to layer over the foam before I covered them. Sorry honey.
- Fabric of your choice. I used 1/2 a yard of white, fluffy fabric, also from Joanne's.
- Staple gun, Joanne's.
- Spray adhesive. Joanne's.
- TABLE
- Grey wood stain
- High gloss protective finish. If there is a spray version, I would definitely use that instead of painting it on like I did.
- Gold spray paint (lightly sprayed the tops of the screws)
- Acrylic sheet/plexiglass at .08 thickness, 18 x 24 inches. I think Lowes may cut it to the exact dimensions you will need - 23 3/8" by 17 3/8" - if so, that is absolutely the way to go. Major pain otherwise. Home Depot wouldn't cut it so I had to saw it using a plexiglass cutter. And when I say "I", I mean Brad. Thanks honey.
- I bought this beautiful ombre paper from Paper Source. It's reversible; the other side would work for a boy;)
DIRECTIONS...
- CUSHIONS: Cut the foam so that it fits within the inside corners of the seat. Adhere the foam to the seat. Cut enough fabric so that you'll have a couple inches hangover. Pull taunt, fold over, staple gun it. Cut off excess. Since I used a fluffy fabric, I cut the fluff off of the area where I would need to slide the seat into the slot of the chair frame. I assembled the chair around the seat cushion. Got a nice snug fit. I was so stinking proud of myself! I thought making a seat cushion was way out of my DIY league but it was SO EASY. And fun even. Did the seat cushions and painted the whole set in one nap time! (Amara is taking roughly 2 hour naps at the moment).
DIRECTIONS...
- TABLE: Paint/stain the UN-assembled set. I used a grey stain and used only one coat. I am too impatient to wait to apply a second coat. Plus, I liked the way it looked. The next day (during nap) I applied a protective finish, high gloss. I painted it on but would have used a spray if I knew there was one available. The directions said to paint it on, buff it off, paint it on, buff it off, paint it on. I couldn't do all of that. Because I didn't want to. So, I used one coat and left it like that. For the table top, Brad sawed the plexiglass to the proper dimensions (23 3/8 by 17 3/8"). I wasn't a fan of the silver hardware so I punched the screws through some leftover foam and gave the tops of them a light coat of gold spray paint. After the table was assembled, Brad measured and painfully sawed the plexiglass to fit. There are notches at each corner than need to be cut out as well. Then, I placed that cut plexiglass on top of the pretty paper and used an X-acto knife to cut the paper to shape. You can see me doing that in that picture up there. Oh wait, that's Brad again.
- One thing I haven't done yet but will absolutely do, is to seal the edges on the inlayed plexiglass. If Amara spills water (which she will), it will totally seep into the table top and ruin the paper. So, until I buy a sealant, no drinking or watercoloring on the table; pretend tea only.
And voila! I LOVE her little table. It is so cute and she loves it. At $20 (plus $10 for shipping), it was easy to spend money to customize it. It takes a little time but I enjoy (half-assing) a little project now and then;)
Sorry about my fuzzy phone pics (boo hoo), was one of those atypical rainy days in Austin.
