Karl's Sexy and He Knows It

Does anyone remember our crazy experience bringing Karl home from Ikea? I can't forget. Moral of the story was, use a truck (or spring for delivery)!

Anyways. We love Karl. Is he a forever couch? No. I know he's not the kind of quality that you just know you will enjoy for years on end, but with little boys in the house, Karl is perfect for us.

When we first got the couch, many people offered comments on the blog about how they hate the cushions, etc. Yes, so very helpful after he's already been purchased and set up in the house. :/ 
But, in response I have offered this tip for all couches:

we all have our favorite places to sit, so those cushions get more worn and squashed. To keep things evened out, flip and rotate all the cushions. The sectional has different sizes for different spaces, but I take the back cushions and flip them about once a week, and then I also switch which spot the cushion is in at least once a month. It really makes a difference, especially with loose back cushions.

The blonde legs look so small and eh.

I did have one eensy little complaint about Karl though. His legs. I don't love blonde wood and on Karl, I felt they cheapened him. Out on the blogs I've seen several painting of the legs, including on Young House Love, which was my main inspiration. BUT, I didn't want paint.

So, we dismantled Karl and took off his legs.

Sanded them. Sand until you think you have done enough and then go back and do it again. That Ikea sealent is quality stuff, man! Hard to get off. In fact, my legs stained unevenly because I didn't get it all off, but I love it anyway.

I used Minwax stain in Jacobean. I just used an old tee shirt and rubbed it on, let it sit for about five minutes, then wiped it off. I think the can recommends fifteen minutes, but seriously, who is that patient? Not this girl.

It was uneven and I wasn't sure, but then I decided I kind of loved the organic, uneveness of it paired with the modern, clean lines of the couch.

After they dried, I sealed them with Shellac spray and let dry. Then I Matt reassembled Karl.

Totally need to rotate those cushions! I had just kicked the kids off so I could snap a picture. :)

LOVE.

I'm so glad we finally made this easy change. Now I just need to find some new pillows...

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Adventures in Ridiculous, Or Our Trip to Ikea

Sure, let's drive two hours and buy a couch at Ikea in our seems-big-but-not-that-big Ford Freestyle. What could possibly go wrong?

When I think assembly required, I think of relatively flat boxes. Not so, dear readers, not so. Hmmm. Let's back up one step.

I needed furniture in the basement, but I didn't want to buy brand new stuff for the room no one sees when my living room furniture is 8 and 9 years old. 

So we took the loveseat and moved it downstairs. And had to get rid of the green couch because it wouldn't fit downstairs (and it was my least favorite of the two anyway).

That meant, I needed an affordable solution to get that much seating back into the room. Enter Karl. 

Whose full name is KARLSTAD, but we just call him Karl. (It's just necessary to call furniture from Ikea by its name. It just is.)

Packing him into the car involved taking most of the pieces out of their boxes. 

It was a bit like playing Tetris knowing you were given pieces that will never fit together.

Gabe's seat belt could not have been re-buckled if we took him out for any reason on the way home. We had planned to stop for lunch. Then Matt started to go through a drive-thru when I pointed out we won't fit with the stuff on the roof. 

I don't want to say Matt was a bit testy, but at this point his response was, "Fine, then I guess we just can't eat anything!" Or, we could send someone in to buy the food to-go. Which, of course, he came to his senses and that's what we did.


Then we got home and all the pieces in the house.

Someone told us they'd never buy a couch from Ikea because it's just all bolted together and that's cheap. Um, what do you think is holding together any piece of furniture you buy? You just don't normally see it. We've been happy with Ikea's quality.

It went together really easily and things just lined up right. 

The slip covers are nice and tight. Though, wow, it took a lot of muscles to get the cushions into them. They are made to fit perfectly! We picked the Sivik Dark Gray color. I really like it.

Of course it means I need to get to all the other updates in the room now. :) One thing at a time, right?

Here's my advice. If you are going to get a couch (especially a sectional) from Ikea, take a truck!

But, welcome home, Karl, welcome home.

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