nursery ikea chair recover: How to re-cover and Ikea Poang chair.
I had this chair from Ikea. You all know this chair. It’s called the Poang. Don’t ask me to read that last sentence aloud. Whenever I say Poang in my head, I imagine it is a cross between ping and pong. Add mastery of Swedish furniture names to my to-do list.
Anyway…
I seriously think you can find one of these chairs in at least half of the 20-something’s apartments in America. With the invasion of baby chairs and swings, our living room just did not have room for our beloved Ikea chair. I decided to find a new home for this chair in the nursery for several reasons. A) it has just the right amount of bounce, since I wasn’t crazy over getting a full-on rocking chair, and B) we already owned it. Cross “nursery chair” off our ever-growing list of things we need to buy for the nursery.
I took off the cushion, lightly sanded the chair frame, and pulled out my spray primer and white spray paint. Actually, first I – the six-month pregnant lady – donned my protective mask and hoped none of the neighbors walked by. That was simple enough.
Then came the sewing. Since my sewing skills end with “sewing a straight line,” I called on my mom for help. With 2 1/4 yards of upholstery remnant, we basically sewed a giant pillowcase for the chair cushion. Then my mom hand stitched the open end of the cushion cover.
This sounds simple, but I’m sure my mom will have nightmares about this chair for years. The reason? We started by trying to iron on velcro to close the cover. Well, it just looked lumpy and half of the velcro started coming undone. The other half of the velcro was a royal pain to remove when we decided to hand stitch instead. So, thanks mom!
I think the chair turned out pretty great. My Boppy pillow and I fit nicely in the chair, and the back is tall enough to provide head support for when I am barely conscious during those middle of the night feedings. And better yet, the babies love being bounced in this chair – they settle so easily.
Now I just need a solution for an ottoman… because we all know there is no way I am ready to try reupholstering the ottoman that goes with this set.
I got my mom one of those with the ottoman…we call it The Coma Chair…you can’t siti in it more than ten minutes without falling asleep!
Nice job on the changes…looks comfy!
After reading this I just had my husband paint our poang chair white for me. He used spray primer and white spray paint but then finished with a couple coats of polyurethane. It is so shiny now! Not what I was imagining. Any chance you know how to simply make it more of a flat white like yours?
Thanks!!
Hi Polly – Oh no! It’s the polyurethane. Whatever you finish the chair with needs to have a flat or eggshell finish. Anything with a gloss finish will be shiny! I’m guessing you used the poly to protect the paint – so I would recommend a matte poly finish. Good luck!