Cleaning up with IKEA!!

A few years ago a friend of mine asked for some IKEA help!! She had 3 kids and they were taking over her living room!!  I know we've all been there, so over whelmed by our children's toys (aka...their MESS) and not sure where to start!! It was a fun project and she was really happy with the final result. I recently visited her home and all the IKEA products she purchased are still in great shape and are still being used by her now family of 6!!

This is the before photo she sent me!! Her major concern was organizing her children's toys, replacing her current furniture and creating a space that reflected her style and personality. She had purchased a bin storage system but found that it wasn't holding enough of her children's things, and that a lot of their toys were too big for the bins. Another huge issue she had was that her sofas, which she had just purchased 6 months prior, were sagging and stained.  With 3 little ones it's a necessity to have furniture that is washable or at the very least wipe able.  And lastly, she had picked a lot of neutral colors to be safe and felt her home lacked personality.  After going back and forth for a few weeks with IKEA links and pins from Pinterest this is what she selected....

We started with selecting her sofa, at the time we had an IKEA Soderhamn Sofa on display in our shop and she loved it!! The selling factors for her were that it was a deep seat sofa, you could wash the covers and reconfigure it at any time.  For the floors, who knew under that big shaggy rug hid these beautiful wood floors.  She debated on adding a rug but felt that for cleaning purposes, it was much simpler to leave her wood floors bare. ​Storage was her family's main challenge, she selected the Besta, Stuva and Tofteryd lines to help her get organized. These lines also helped her achieve a more sophisticated feel in her living room.  We decided to keep all the main furniture pieces in white to help create a more clean and open living space, saving all the pops of color for her accent pieces. ​ And to finish off the space we added some curtains and pillows she purchased from Target.

She selected the Soderhamn Sofa in the color Samsta dark gray, mainly because it was a darker and more forgiving color. It was really important for her family to have a place where they could snuggle up and read stories or watch movies, something the deep seats of the Soderhamn definitely helped achieve. ​Also as I mentioned earlier, the major selling factors for her were that she could wash the covers, change or replace the covers completely and that the sofa was easy to reconfigure at any time. This Sofa is a combination of three separate pieces, two sofa sections and one corner section.

For media storage she selected the Besta Burs TV unit in high gloss white, it has two large drawers with internal organizers for media and electronic storage.  We were even able to organize some of the kids’ books in here. Another great feature of this piece is that the DVD player, cable box and gaming console are hidden behind the 3-center flip down doors. No need to worry about the little ones pushing buttons or trying to open the DVD player and stick their toys in, I know that's something my children have definitely tried

To match the TV unit she selected the Tofteryd Coffee table in high gloss white. The great thing about this piece is it has two very deep shelves and two smooth-running drawers for storing remote controls, magazines and other knickknacks. The gloss on this piece makes it very easy to wipe clean.

And to finish off the space she selected two Stuva storage benches with pullout storage drawers for the kids’ toys. The great thing about this piece is that it can also be used as a bench for more seating or as a desk!! ​My main goal with helping her family get organized was creating a "home" for all their things. We used bins to sort the smaller toys and fit them all neatly into the big storage drawers.  Overall all the IKEA pieces worked really well for her family and she didn't have to compromise on style or functionality

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I hope that you enjoyed this IKEA makeover!! If you need help with putting pieces together for your home please contact us to setup a 30 minute FREE Design Appointment. I've tried to source all the IKEA products below:

• SÖDERHAMN Sectional, 5-seat, Samsta dark gray
• BESTÅ BURS TV unit, high gloss white
• TOFTERYD Coffee table, high gloss white
• STUVA Storage bench, white
• VÅRGYLLEN Cushion cover, white, black

(The curtains and other pillows were from Target.)