4/18/2016

The Day My Couch Grew Up--An IKEA Kivik Hack

 Do you feel like you go through these phases of projects?  Like all of a sudden you do a bunch of house projects, or then it's sewing, or crafts, etc.  I'm in a "house phase" right now.  We've made a list of things we want to get done, and we've been slowly working our way through the list.

Today though I'm going to tell you about my "grown up" couch.  Although really, it seems weird calling my Ikea couch a "grown-up couch" because, well, my ideal grown up couch is probably like 3x as expensive. Until I get my real grown up couch though, I'm pretty darn excited about this "grown up" couch.  

Last year we went to Ikea to look at sofas, and I was eying the Karlstad....but we came home with a Kivik.  Why?  Well, because we decided that the Kivik was just way more comfortable.  While I might have been willing to tough out the comfort factor, there was no way my hubby was going to settle for a couch he deemed "horribly uncomfortable."

We compromised on the Kivik...under one condition:  We had to raise it.  It was just too low to the ground.  Now we naively thought that this would be an easy fix.  Just add legs, right?  No.  Not at all.  Not when you have a sectional.

There's this little piece of metal that attaches the chaise to the rest of the couch. It also acts as leg.  

So needless to say it took us a year to finally getting around to figuring out a solution.  I'm so happy we did, because seriously, it makes such a difference, not only in it's appearance, but for comfort too!  We're a tall family so that extra couple of inches is huge!

Oh, and I did I mention that we raised our couch for less than $20?  Yeah.  What a deal, right?
Are you ready for the details?  Here we go!
The legs for our Ikea sofa are upside down bed risers.  I found this brilliant idea on Pintrest from Savannah Smiled.   We used 9 of these bed risers, which I got at target.  They came in packs of 4 which were about $5 each. 

For most all of the legs all we had to do was place the bedriser over the existing leg.  The problem though was that tricky metal piece connecting the couch and the sofa?  We needed a solution for that.  Here's what we came up with.  

We used some scrap wood that we already had on hand  and cut it to sit nicely on the bottom of the bed riser.  
  Then we attached another wood piece to that base, to make a leg.
 We secured it to the base of the couch, right next to that tricky metal piece.  We did this for both the top and bottom leg on this side.
 The only other problem we had was with the end piece that attached next to the chase.  This other metal bar got in the way, but we just loosened the screws so we could fit the bed riser underneath the plastic. 
 See how the edge of the bed riser is under the plastic bar?  Easy peasy.  We put the rest of the legs on the couch--by simply placing the existing legs in them, and then that was it! 
 I love my "new" couch! 
Hope you all have a great week!  I'll be back next week with another project!

XOXO,

Jill

PS:  If you liked this post, you might like some of my other IKEA hacks:

Like this desk hack:
 And this buffet hack:

24 comments:

  1. I saw your comment on YHL's IG and had to pop over to see what you did. I LOVE this couch, but the low height of it has always concerned my husband (and me a bit too). Thanks for sharing how you did this. It looks great!

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  2. What were the measurements of the wooden legs?

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    Replies
    1. I don't have the measurements of the wooden "legs" that we made to fit inside of the bed risers. We just held the wood piece up and marked how long they should be when comparing to the bed riser. Sorry!

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  3. Wow this is a great idea! If I don't want to make the wooden leg, would it he possible to put several square-shaped pieces of wood inside of the bed riser until it touched the metal leg?

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  4. You probably could. My only worry might be that it wouldn't be as sturdy, although I imagine that would only be a problem if you were moving the couch.

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  5. Can you tell me how high that made the couch? For example, with the new legs how high is it from floor to top of the back of the couch and how high is it from floor to top of seat cushion? Thank you so much for your feedback, really want this couch but it is just too low for our tall family!!

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    Replies
    1. From the floor to the top of the back of the couch: 36 inches
      From the floor to the top of the seat cushion: 21 inches

      Hope that helps!

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    2. This helps so much! Thanks you!

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  6. How did you attach the other legs? If you just place them over the existing they could slide around if the couch moves.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I guess some of them could move as they are placed over the existing. Some are slightly more secured because they are tucked under the fabric a cover a bit. Either way it hasn't really been a problem...and my kids jump on it all the time.

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  7. I just bought a Ikea Kivik sofa and this is a brilliant idea. Just one question, if you have no existing legs to place riser over, how do you secure the risers in place? I suppose a nail gun could get the job done. Thoughts?

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    Replies
    1. The Kivik I bought came with some small legs. If you don't have those, I guess you could try to make them like I did for the center ones?

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  8. Sofa legs are normally too short even for the average height persons. If seat height was standardized we could use a sofa at a dining table. This might help in small spaces.

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  9. My 40 year-old knees and back cannot thank you enough for sharing this!! Cheers!!

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  10. I am having the same dilemma!

    I purchased replacement legs from an IKEA hack website but now the metal bar between the chaise and the sofa has no support. As a quick fix we put books underneath but obviously we need something 1) secure 2) not so ugly...

    I am not handy and don't think I can adequate cut wood or secure the wood on my couch.

    My new legs are 4.7 inches so I need about 3.5 inches of "lift" under the bars...

    Do you have any other suggestions? TIA!

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    Replies
    1. You might be able to ask at Home Depot or Lowes for them to cut some wood for you. Normally they will do that for a nominal fee. Otherwise I'm not really sure of what to suggest...Good luck!

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  11. Did anyone ever figure out the measurements for the wooden piece? I'd like to do this but that wooden piece is worrying me. How do I know how to measure how long the piece should be and where the nailing should go?

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  12. Hey enormous stuff or pleasant information you are offering here.top kid sofas

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  13. Among the finest reasons for having these futons is you can invest in a durable futon structure which will last years, and you could merely swap the futon protect if you want a diverse appear, or maybe the total bed if you want a various firmness or level of comfort.

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  15. This sounds exactly what I need. I’ve just had knee replacement surgery because of arthritis. I raised my bed, and need to do the sofa.
    I have the Corner sofa, 5-seat w chaise longue, so would probably need 2-4 more than you I guess?

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