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You are visiting: Home » Decorating/DIY » Create Your Decor » The Low Rider is a Little Higher

The Low Rider is a Little Higher

by Lindsay Ballard on May 5, 2014 6 Comments

A few years ago, I redecorated my kids’ playroom.  In order to make it more family friendly, I added an Ikea Karlstad sofa to the room.  But, I thought the legs on the sofa were awful, so I replaced them with some tapered legs I found at Lowe’s.  I swear that I wrote a post about it, but I can’t seen to find it now.

Ikea Hack - building sturdy tapered legs and skirt for a Karlstad sofa

That’s not the most detailed picture of the legs, but I can’t take another one to share.  Why?  Well, the legs flat out fell off of the sofa.  The combination between the thin wood and the leg plates on the bottom of the sofa was a bad combination. They just sort of caved in and snapped off after about 6 months.

Tom tried to fix the legs several times, but they continued to bend at the metal plate.  So, we gave up and had a leg-less couch sitting on the playroom floor.  It was super stylish, y’all.  We called it the Low Rider couch.

The point finally came that I had enough.  We used some scrap wood from the garage and some spray paint, and helped get the sofa off the ground (again).

Ikea Hack - building sturdy tapered legs and skirt for a Karlstad sofa
These legs are going nowhere, y’all!  And they make the sofa look a little more polished.

To make this skirt and legs, Tom drew a leg shape on a wood block and cut four of them the same size.  Then, he measured the length and width of the sofa and figured out how long he would need to make the skirt so that it would fit the sofa.

He used a Kreg Jig Mini to make pocket holes and assembled the skirt and legs into a box.  I spray painted it with black satin spray paint.

Ikea Hack - building sturdy tapered legs and skirt for a Karlstad sofa

Ikea Hack - building sturdy tapered legs and skirt for a Karlstad sofa

Then, Tom just flipped the sofa over and screwed the box onto the bottom of the sofa.  He channeled his inner Jessie Pinkman when he was finished. I won’t tell you what he said, but if you are a Breaking Bad fan, I bet you can figure it out.  It made me laugh.

I actually prefer the look of the new skirt and legs to the old tapered legs – and I definitely prefer it to the legs that originally came with the sofa.

Ikea Hack - building sturdy tapered legs and skirt for a Karlstad sofa
The moral of this story?  Sometimes you have to go through a few iterations of a project to come up with a solution that will work.  Don’t worry if your first project attempt doesn’t work out.  Keep trying until you get to your happy, non-low riding place.

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.

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Comments

  1. Stacy Risenmay says

    May 5, 2014 at 1:32 pm

    That is awesome! Necessity is the mother of invention 🙂

    Reply
  2. the Blah Blah Blahger says

    May 5, 2014 at 2:11 pm

    Go Tom!

    Reply
  3. Kelly Reber says

    May 5, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    The Jessie reference made me laugh out loud… and made my cry. I miss Breaking Bad… On another note – Iove the skirt and legs. Great thinking!!

    Reply
  4. Nikki Olson says

    May 5, 2014 at 3:08 pm

    Lindsay! We bought the Karlstadt chaises http://thelovelyresidence.blogspot.com/2013/02/ikea-update-nice-legs.html…and I TOTALLY copied you by changing out the legs. Our second replacement leg is about to bust. I love that you followed up and our chubby buns are not the problem!

    Reply
  5. Melissa says

    May 7, 2014 at 10:23 am

    This is brilliant. I just made an upholstered bed frame out of a box spring with a very similar concept.

    I’ve always had a love/hate relationship (love the price!) with the Karlstad (as with most Ikea furniture) because you RECOGNIZE it as Ikea furniture.

    A skirt on a couch? = not Ikea.

    You win.

    Reply
  6. Adam says

    May 8, 2014 at 1:46 pm

    Interesting concept, thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply

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About Makely

Lindsay Ballard is a former college mascot turned political geek turned roller derby playing, DIY fanatic.

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Duke and Jill). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.


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