Okay so is it a hack? No,I guess not. BUT THAT IS WHAT GETS SEARCHED FOR!!!!! First thing’s first: Bear in mind that SOME of the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I may earn a commission. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

We’ve had our own Latt table for about 4 years. It was one of the first things I got my oldest, hoping the next kid would pull up on it, he could push around the chairs, and then one day both would use it like AN ACTUAL TABLE. Our table has been done twice now. Neither time did I have the brains to do a how to though. So…enter my good friend and her own hand-me-down Ikea table. Also a total “go-for-it” attitude with no clue if I would kill the table or not. (I say good friend because I adore her, but also we’ve only known each other for a few months…so for all she knows I could have cut it in half and given it back to her with a sad face painted on top)

The table was totally fine by the way. It looked like what a kids craft table is supposed to look like. Paint, slime, crayon, markers. Oh…and so.much.GLITTER. I am not a glitter person. If you were watching me as I unscrewed the front section and slid out the table top you may have thought a hundred baby spiders had come bursting out. But no. No, this nightmare was WAY WORSE.

The first thing you need to do is take your table apart, or if you are starting with a new table from Ikea, I actually suggest you put it together, but leave our the table top and chair tops (check out this pictures if I sound like a crazy lady)

One thing I want to point out before moving on, well two actually, is that this is an older Ikea table. They don’t have these slats anymore. And lordy is that both awesome and strange because the slats protect the super thin MDF from collapsing. I actually had to cut a new seat because (for the second thing to point out) one of these chairs is from a different Ikea set and didn’t have the slat. The bottom was collapsed in several places.

DISCLAIMER: put some real damn shoes on. I always do word work in the most impractical and not safe footwear. Don’t follow my terrible example here

Basically I traced the seat top and did a terrible rough job trying to cut before my kid came into the garage. Don’t do this, MDF is flimsy, if you don’t have anything to keep it steady and you’re cutting with a jigsaw, wait until someone is available to hold it steady for you. Cutting this the right size took me twice as long as it could have if I had just waited for my husband to take his lunch. Make sure you get the cutest as acurate as possible if adding fabric, this adds bulk, so while there may be some wiggle room without fabric, the fabric takes that bit away.

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Now that your chairs and tables are assembled without the MDF, you’ll need to clean and sand them. Like I said these were not too bad, I was mostly taking off the abstract art.

Give everything a quick sand. I use this black and decker sander, I actually don’t reccomend it, but it’s cheap and gets the job done. I’ll link the one I prefer at the end. I have everything a quick once over, and rounded the edges a couple but to match the chair without the slat. I then moved on to COLOR. my friends have a fairly neutral color playroom, greens and whites, and neutral wood throughout the house. I felt like greens and blues were consistent.

I wanted to stick to the same idea but also for it to be completely different so instead of natural wood I went with a darker stain that still had a natural look. I also love this stain and it’s like a constant Ikea experiment for me… What color will this turn this particular piece of Ikea furniture it seems to always be different and I find it hilarious but also gorgeous.

After finishing the chairs moved onto the table. How much do you love this blue?!?!? I started bottoms up because I always forget the bottom.

You’ll need at least 2 coats. The idea is really a thin coat to dry fast. I’m all about a quick project and it’s not going to be quick if there are drops, drips or it takes hours to dry.

Also I know some people hate spray painting furniture. I’m not some people. I fa-reek-ing love it. Especially with Rust-Oleum Painters Touch Ultra Cover 2X. No I am not sponsored (but how do I make THAT happen because ys girl has shelves full and an addiction), I just truly love it and use it all the time.

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After the second coat, let everything sit. While you don’t need to worry about the slats, you do need to make sure the top lip is painted as the table top is recessed a bit. While the blue dried I took a 2,000 wet/dry piece of sand paper (I don’t know that you need that much it’s just what I had precut and didn’t want to waste it) and just made sure everything on the chairs were smooth and then sealed the chairs.

This stuff isn’t cheap ($10 a can), but it’s my preferred sealer for anything I’ve stained. It has a slight yellow tint I’ve noticed which is why I didn’t use it for the table, but it is beautiful. I have 2 coats on my dining table (also Ikea) and I can clean it with no issues and it looks like new each day.

I gave the table 1 coat for now…get all uo in there…but from a distance. If you were doing a light touch with the color be even lighter with the sealer. If you mess it up now girl….or boy…or they…well let’s just say it’s gonna be back to the starting point for you (plus a lot of sanding and possible scraping).

So this next part is totally up to you. I may be the only one, but I actually hate new bright furniture. It just makes my current stuff look old. I mean it is old….but I mean no one asked you to point it out! So I like a bit of a distressed look. Someone taught me this YEARS ago.take a stain that matches a piece of furniture (luckily the chairs and table go together) and you QUICKLY wipe on and off to add some dimension randomly on your piece. When you have the look you want you can leave it and seal it 1-2 more times or you can take some high grit sand paper and distress it a bit more. Up to you! When your all done seal it all up.

So I unfortunately forgot to take photos of the top. But I simply sanded both sides and spray painted with chalkboard paint. Again 2 coats, but with this one, after the second coat you wait 24 hours then you need to prime it with chalk.

Putting the top in was quite the chore with those darn slats. But I got her it! When your all done you can paint the bolts or leave them silver, we painted them. Next time I think I’ll paint them with a black chalk paint, again I just like the dimension it brings on such s bright blue.

The last thing I did to the table was added a dowl and holder on the bottom and a paper holder/cutting (just moulding) on the top. I’ll leave a link at the bottom but, speaking from experience, ignore the predpre-drilled holes and drill 3 of your own. I also added a bit of E6000 for good measure. You’ll also need a dowl for your paper. Now I know you probably want dimensions but the thing is, not every Ikea table is exactly alike!

Here’s what I can say, get the 2 inch dowel holders and a half inch rod. Again I’ll link below but that’s a start. for the top I found a spare piece of half inch moudling I had already and used that, you can use any wood that fits the ledge of the table. I cut mine a tad shorter than the table in case they wanted to add on bins from Ikea in the future there would still be space on the edges. I also stained it with the same stain as the chairs. I put a dab of E6000 on each edge and 1small nail on each side.

We seeThe seats of chair are hard to photograph so here is a picture of the bottom. Make sure if you are using a staple gun that the staple sit flat, and foam should be the size between the inside 4 corners or it won’t fit in the chair frame.

All that was left was to pack it up and ship it out! Well…be late to pick up my son and have a quick car exchange while I do a typical Ari rant about how PEOPLE DRIVE SO SLOW! BECAUSE WWWHHHYYY?!?!?

On a completely unrelated (to the table) note…anyone else on covid brain and unable to keep track of days or time? I can blame the traffic for today but without the traffic I would have just been exactly on time vs 5 minutes late. Covid brain is real man!