Simple Children's Sofa from an Ikea Bedside Table

So I've been on the search for a suitable child-sized sofa for a while now.  Everything I've come across is too big, too bland, too childish or too expensive.  I was recently browsing IKEA Hackers and inspiration struck.  Here's the result!

I started with the RAST bedside table from Ikea for the bargain price of £8.99.  I wanted to have some storage underneath so made sure to drill the new holes for the seat high enough to fit a couple of baskets underneath.

Once the seat was fitted I toyed with the back support until I was happy with the angle, made a couple of marks and then guesstimated where to drill the holes.  Not hugely precise, but I've got a pretty good eye for these sorts of things.

The finished sofa frame.  Complete with pen.

What I don't seem to have a good eye for is when my child is drawing on sofas with pens whilst I am building them. Clearly not one of my best parenting moments as despite being less than 6 inches from him I had no idea what he was doing.


I filled the pre-drilled holes with coloured wood filler (I chose a colour that was too dark, so shows quite clearly). When it was dry I sanded the excess off and applied a coat of Danish Oil in the Jacobean Dark Oak with a lint-free cloth.  In hindsight I should have used a small wood dowel to fill the holes and stained over them.  A bit of wood filler would still have been needed, but the finish would have been much nicer.

For the cushions I opted for easy.  I bought two Lusy Blom cushions (£4.99 each) also from Ikea and simply cut one end of each cushion and took the stuffing out.  When they were empty I measured and cut the excess fabric off, stitched the ends and put roughly half the stuffing back in.  I made small throw cushions from the fabric remnants.

The end result was less than £20 and fits two small bums comfortably.  I love it.  More importantly, so do the kids!