IKEA HACK- LÄTT CHILDREN’S TABLE
Truth be told, I never really considered myself much of a DIY-er (hence the lack of “during” photos because I did not know if this project would turn out well). But maybe that is changing? I scoured the internet for a children’s table that I liked, and they were either too plain or too expensive. So I thought I would try my hand at upgrading one to fit what I wanted.
Here are the materials I used:
Ikea Lätt Table and chairs - $29.99 (linked here).
Marble contact paper ($21.99- the cheaper one I used is no longer available) but similar linked here.
Gold Spray Paint ($5.30, I used Rust-oleum Metallic gold, linked here).
Primer- ($10.99, linked here).
White Paint (Note- the paint I used was leftover from another project and I used it to reduce costs, but I would NOT recommend this paint. It worked perfectly for this, but I overall I did not like this paint for the price)- $31.99, Nuvo Cabinet paint- linked here just in case. I have used the Rust-oleum white spray paint on subsequent projects and I would much prefer using that, around $4 per can depending on the paint finish, linked here.
Painters tape ($5.64 per roll, ScotchBlue is my favorite, linked here).
Paint Brush.
(Note- I had the primer, white paint, painters tape, and paint brush on hand from other projects so that reduced my costs for this project.)
Here is the process I used:
PRIME. To make it easier on yourself, paint it before you assemble! I’m not sure you would necessarily need to prime it, but I did because I had primer from another project.
PAINT. I used two coats of white paint. Important to note, I painted all the way down the legs, even though I planned for the “dip-dye” appearance, because I did not want to have any unevenness under the spray paint. I let each coat dry according to the instructions before applying another coat.
TAPE. I let the paint dry for 24 hours and then I measured 5 inches from the bottom of each leg and used painter’s tape around each leg (I measured the top of the tape to the 5-inch mark because the legs were not that long). I used a small level to make sure the tape was even on each side.
SPRAY PAINT. This is the trickiest step of this process. First, you need to cover up the rest of the chair with plastic or a towel because the residual spray paint will get all over the freshly painted furniture. Note- its inevitable that some spray paint will get on the rest of the furniture, but some touchups at the end are easy enough. Next, you have to spray paint from all angles to make sure the paint is even around each leg. I applied two coats of spray paint. I was a little heavy handed with the spray paint at first and had a few drips on mine so I would recommend going lighter with each coat.
SPRAY HARDWARE. I used the spray paint on the hardware provided in the IKEA set. Again, lighter coats to prevent drips.
APPLY CONTACT PAPER. I added the contact paper to the table top (I chose not to add anything to the seats of the chairs because this step by far took me the longest with the tabletop so I left the chair seats white). I measured the contact paper, allowing for an extra 1” on each side, applied it to the tabletop, and smoothed out all of the bubbles with a credit card (warning! this took quite a while and required a lot of patience).
ASSEMBLE. I assembled the table according to the IKEA instructions.
TOUCH-UPS. After I took off the painters tape from the legs, I did have to touch up some white paint where some of the peripheral spray paint got on the table and chairs.
VOILA! I could not be happier with the way this turned out. And less expensive than the other options I was eyeing!
