Getting Some Color on Our Legs
Do you have an IKEA sofa with boring furniture legs? It’s so easy to spruce up your IKEA sofa legs with a little paint or stain – here’s how we did it on our IKEA Karlstad sofa.
No, Corey and I haven’t been tanning (although, I sure could use it!). We’ve been staining.
What have we been staining, you ask? I’ll give you a hint.
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Does anything in that photo stand out to you?
Maybe the so-light-they-practically-glow legs on our couch?
Because oh my goodness, they stood out to us. And made me cringe a little every time I saw them.
NOTE: See what we think about our IKEA Karlstad sofa 6+ years after purchasing it!
Eventually, Corey and I would love to replace the legs of our couch with something else – maybe some stainless legs like Manhattan Nest has on his Karlstad sofa? Or possibly even some tapered, mid-century legs like these from Our Mid Century?
But, until we actually go out and buy the new legs, we figured we could go for an easy (and free, since we already had the stain) makeover for the legs.
How to Stain IKEA Karlstad Furniture Legs
The beautiful thing about IKEA furniture legs is how easy they usually are to screw off! All you’ve got to do is rotate the sofa legs until they pop off, then take them outside to stain (or paint) them.
When staining, I’ve found the best method is to brush the stain on with a foam brush, let it sit for 5-10 minutes (longer if you want a darker color) and wipe off the excess stain with cheesecloth. I’ve tried using other materials, like dishcloths and t-shirts, but cheesecloth is the only thing I’ve found that rubs the excess stain of easily without leaving any sort of residue.
We used Minwax stain in Dark Walnut, which is my favorite stain color ever. It’s gorgeous.
We gave them two quick coats of stain, not letting the stain sit for too long either time.
And now? I totally don’t cringe when I look at the couch.
It may be a small change but we feel like it looks so much better. I absolutely adore the new look and I feel like it really helps the couch feel more integrated with the rest of the room.
Also? Please ignore the disgusting carpet. It’s nasty to begin with, and we’ve been enjoying a lot of fires in the fireplace lately due to the freakishly cold weather, so we’ve got some extra dirt and log debris floating around the living room.
UPDATE: See how we replaced the carpet down here with vinyl plank flooring!Â
We still plan on replacing the legs at some point, because we aren’t huge fans of the current shape, but it’s not nearly as high on the priority list anymore – I can definitely live with these legs for a while!
Have you made any little tweaks lately? More importantly, is anyone out there getting any color on their own legs? I’m starting to think I might blind people once I pull out my shorts again in a few months!
Looks great! Did you use a pre-stain conditioner or a post-stain polyurethane coating? Are those steps required for a project of this size? I would imagine that I’d want to run my vacuum cleaner under the couch, which is the only time during which the legs ‘may’ get banged around.
It’s been a while, but if I remember right we did do a polyurethane coat when we finished – we usually do on all staining projects, just in case. No pre-stain treatment, though. They’ve held up beautifully so far, I definitely would recommend the project!
When you eventually get around to replacing the legs, I would like to suggest getting the ones they sell on Etsy. I own two sets of them, for my sofa and my free standing chaise, and love them. The man who makes them found the right sized bolts, so all you have to do is screw them in to the existing holes in the frame. Unlike the replacement legs on “Our Mid Century” ‘s blog, this requires no carpentry or manipulation of the frame.!
Here’s a photo of mine:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k2yhe/5632710766/in/photostream/
and my chaise:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k2yhe/5632710782/in/photostream/
Thanks for the tip! We’ll definitely keep that in mind! 🙂
I love Manhattan Nest too! The stain is definitely an improvement!
That looks great! The stain made a big difference!
Wow the stain makes a big difference. I love the updated look! Thanks for entering my giveaway, good luck!
I would have never thought to do that, but it looks great! 🙂
That looks great!! It makes a huge difference 🙂
We’re looking at that exact couch, you guys seems to love it. Is it comfortable? How long have you had it? How’s the quality?
We’ve only had it for about four months, but we love it! It’s kind of stiff at first, but once it gets worn in a bit its very comfortable (It took ours maybe a month to get feeling really comfy). It’s incredibly easy to clean since the slipcovers are machine washable, and it’s held up wonderfully so far!
I honestly didn’t think it would make a huge difference, but it sure did!! I personally like those legs, and wouldn’t change them now that they are darker. But, I am excited to see what you change them to! We are getting a flat screen TV as our Christmas present to each other (my husband and I, that is) so I think I want to DIY the entertainment center, since we are doing the wall mount (good call on painting the cord, btw. I am debating getting one of those cord protectors and then painting that…I would think it would look better than cords. Thoughts on this?). But I think that would have to wait til it warms up around here
Sorry for the ramble! 🙂
It definitely makes a huge difference – we’re so glad we did it!
We actually didn’t paint our television cords – they’re currently just hanging out on the wall (which is a total eyesore!) but we plan on eventually running them behind the wall so you can’t see them. We’ve used those cord protectors in the past, and once you paint over them they are definitely significantly less noticeable! My favorite option, though, is always to run them behind the wall. It’s super cheap and gets rid of them completely! I’ll elaborate on the process once we get around to actually doing it (hopefully within the next couple of weeks!)
They look great! I have some dark walnut Minwax in the garage, maybe we need to stain our Karlstad legs too. You have inspired me!!
If you do, make sure you sand them really well. I missed a few spots and luckily was able to hide it fairly well. The problem that I encountered was due to the stain being so close to a natural finish, it was almost impossible to tell the spots you have sanded and the ones you haven’t. That is until you get the new stain on them and those spots won’t take any stain.
Just a warning – we have the same couch, and I replaced the legs with cute mid-century looking ones I found on ebay. The problem was that the couch was totally not sturdy any more. You’d plop yourself down and the whole thing would seem to sway. As much as I hated to admit it to myself, Ikea knew what they were doing when they made the blocky legs for this couch. So, after living with the pretty legs for a few weeks, we switched back to the Ikea ones – which we stained because the birch wood drove me crazy, too.
This is why I love having a blog! Thank you so much for your comment. We will defiantly keep that in mind when we eventually replace these.
Definitely looks better! We changed the legs on a vintage couch in my office – it had roller legs (seriously, they were odd) that made the couch sit really low and I wanted it higher and more modern. We ended up using metal legs from Ikea and they look great!
That was one great free change up for your couch! Love the darker legs.
The stain makes such a difference! I love the way it looks! And what an easy (and cheap) project with a big impact.