Ikea Ivar Hack | ORC Week 3

Y'all, a lot of unbelievable things are happening. First, I can't believe I am celebrating my 39th birthday today! LIKE WHAT?! (Birthday pics will be rolling on my reels later on today) I also can't believe I painted six walls and 2 ceilings in three days, but I did it! And with a few days left to spare for week 2 of the One Room Challenge. Andia, who are you? Anyway, I did not waste any time over the weekend gearing up for the next project of this challenge: the Ikea cabinet turned TV console/barrel chair nook/storage for all my boys play things.

I decided to tackle this job in parts and started with the bench area, which has remained unfinished since the beginning of this hack 2 years ago. Today my costs will just include the building costs for the bench and not the whole console. The only thing I purchased two years ago was the Ivar Cabinet (when it was only $70), so that won't be included in the cost.

Ingredients

1 Ivar 20" Cabinet (They no longer sell this size by itself - I got mine when they were only $70 - Ivar got bougie)

4 1x2x8 boards (or 10 pieces of scrap wood like I did)

1 Gallon of Behr in Broadway (leftover paint from when I first painted)

Foam for seat cushion (I used my youngest son's crib mattress---that never got used because homie refused to sleep on anything but me for two years)

1 2x4 plank of wood ($15)

2 lbs of 6mm pencil reed (I got mine for $20/lbs)

3 3.5" pool noodles cut in half($15)

2 yards of batting ($9)

2 yards of upholstery fabric for back of chair and cushion ($24)

Grand Total $103

Build

Here are a few pictures recapping how this console/bench started.

This is the basic structure of the bench portion. As you can see the top half needed to be redone because when we first built it, we ran out of wood and made the top out of two pieces. That just doesn't cut it for Mama. I also learned I needed twice as many 1x2 so that the back wouldn't sink between the large gaps. I ended up just using what I had on hand for the second try (see photo below) as all of this is going to get covered up.

I used the 2x4 board and traced the shape of the bench. I used my Ryobi jigsaw with Bosch Scroll Blades which are best for curves (the shape of these curves where a little off because I turned the jigsaw too soon) I sanded it down, and then painted it with leftover paint I used on the console before.

Once painted, I lined it up on top and nailed it in place before moving the bench out to nail the backing of the shelf on. Then I shimmied it back in place so that I could start working on the cushion and seat backing.

This is as far as I got for week 2 and I will be finishing this up later this week. If you would like to see the results before next week's post along with my projects I will be starting this week, don't forget to subscribe so that you will receive midweek posts! And as always be sure to check out the other participants on this challenge by clicking the ORC logo!