Sofa Table

I mentioned a week or so ago that Josh's dad came into town. He just closed on his new house (YAY!) and  needed his sofa table back. He loaned it to us a few years ago (it moved with us from Toccoa) and we knew he'd most likely need it back eventually.

I always knew that I'd want the IKEA Hemnes sofa table to match our current coffee table when the time came. I also thought that maybe we'd be adventurous and build one. Then I woke up from that dream.

When his dad called asking for it back and said that he would even come get it (he lives in Mississippi) we were all for it. He then said that as my birthday gift he would replace it for whatever one I wanted. Double score. He told me to peruse Pottery Barn and any other local furniture stores. Although Pottery Barn is lovely I would never pay their prices, even if I could.

So we planned a day to IKEA. It was a super fun day and we grabbed a few things we needed (some towels for the kids bathroom, a chandelier for Em's room, and a few other odds and ends). I keep a running IKEA list all year and stock up when I go to make it worth the trip. Although we only live about 30 minutes away, it's a serious pain with 2 kids. BUT I must add that we took advantage of their childcare/playground for Luke and I was VERY impressed. He had fun and it was super clean.

Back to the sofa table. Here is the before:

I mentioned that I wanted to grab the match to our coffee table so I jumped on pinterest before we left to make sure it was what I wanted. I also took note of the baskets I liked so I could grab those while I was there too.

Here were a few fun ideas I found:

The traditional wicker baskets on bottom. No baskets on top. Styled with a lamp and frames. The lamps are a little too symmetrical for me.
This one really piqued my curiosity. Love how they made the bottom 4 cubbies into 2. Still wasn't sure about the top cubbies not having storage. Balls and breakable stuff isn't really my jam right now. 
This gave me a view of what all white would look like. And I decided that for our style (and brown couches) that this wasn't the direction I was headed. 
So I kind of merged all these ideas together (doggie legs included):

The absolute best part? I didn't buy any new baskets. I fully intended when I walked in IKEA that I would walk out with baskets. But as I realized that our coffee table baskets fit in the upper cubbies and that we really didn't use our baskets under the coffee table in our new house I figured it would be the perfect switch. In our old house we had NO place for toy storage in the living room so the baskets had a purpose. Well now we have a playroom so no need for baskets. And I like the open coffee table better.

And the striped bins were used on top of our desk hutch in our old house
But that's my embroidery desk now so the bins could be repurposed. 

As we were assembling the sofa table we purposely left out 2 of the cubbies to create space for these. And we kept the other pieces and screws incase we ever change our mind!

I dry our cloth diapers in the sun on our back deck (right past this table) so I figured it was the perfect place to display our pretty, yet functional clothes pins in a blue mason jar.
Overall I'm in love. I'm shocked at how a bigger piece doesn't make the space feel any smaller since it's so bright and white. I am also super proud that we repurposed things we already have. And if I miss the baskets under the coffee table, it's IKEA. I can always grab more. I am SO THANKFUL for this gift and just the fact that Josh's dad thought of me (and let us borrow the old one to begin with)! Yay for happy FREE switch ups!

2 comments :

  1. What a great idea to take the two dividers out on the bottom!

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    1. Thanks! Good luck with yours! Excited to see it when it's on the blog.

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