IKEA Hack/LATT Table and Chairs Turned Storage Table

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UPDATE: Make sure you put some sort of soft close adapter or hinge that would allow for the table top to not fall too fast or fall at all! Little A had a mishap with the table top falling down and hit underneath his eye. My poor little fellow. So, please learn from my mistake!



When Little A was about a year old, we purchased him an IKEA LATT table so that he would have his own table to read, draw and pretty much learn on. That thing has been through so many stages of his life. He has eaten on it, subsequently doused in water painted on, colored on and just plain had fun on. Recently, it started to become very, for lack of a better word, sad. The particle board top was bubbling up and would not get clean, the legs, sides and chairs had paint and color marks, and the whole table had seen better days.

Big A wanted to throw it out and buy a new table, but I couldn't part with it yet. Especially seeing as I love fixing things up. Silly, silly husband. So I got started on the table on Tuesday of this week and put the final touches on it today. It didn't take me too long. All in all, I am very proud of it and Little A loves it to pieces! He has already stashed his prized toy cars in it along with his art supplies. Every LATT table and chairs makeover that I have seen has been amazing, and now I can sit back and watch Little A enjoy his IKEA hack too! And I have to warn you, I work in unconventional ways!

On Tuesday, I got started sanding everything down. It made it easier to take the table apart and sand, but I left the chairs together since my plan was to upholster the toddler chairs anyways. The sanding took the most time, apart from the staining. Putting it together didn't take all too much time. Anyways, before I go all squirrel on you, back to the process. I used a hand sander* and sanded just enough to get rid of the marks that had accumulated over the years. 

Next came putting the table back together. Just to let you all know, it was freezing outside, and by freezing for us Texans, I mean roughly forty or fifty degrees. This part took much longer than it should have because my fingers were so stinking cold. Once I put the table back together, I took a few pieces of scrap wood and cut them to the dimensions of the inside of the table for dividers. Using some leftover screws, my mom I screwed it into the table to create the small dividers. My mom is a trooper y'all, braving the cold to help me with the table and chairs! Oh, and do you see those nice, beautiful, bright running shoes that I'm wearing? So, stain and shoes don't mix well. So sad.

I started with the middle divider, of course.

Then the smaller divider.

This might be unconventional, but instead of purchasing a new bottom for the table, I set to use the particle board that the table originally came with. After I took it out, I flipped the particle board over and painted the underneath a medium gray color that I had from a sample. I painted it on top of the table as I was trying not to get paint everywhere. The picture that I have though is of the before particle board. Unfortunately neither my mom nor I took a picture of the after before I put it on.

Next up was staining this bad boy. I didn't really take pictures of this part because of the cold and everything, but it was fairly easy. Take a towel or rag that you don't mind losing and your choice of stain. I chose Dark Walnut by Minwax* which is a richer brown color. I started in sections. Once I was done with one section, I'd let it sit, then wipe with the opposite end of the towel that I was using. The trick for a more even and easier application is use pressure and do long, slow applications. Use gloves! I made the mistake of not using gloves, and my hands were stained! (Neat tip: use olive oil and a little bit of elbow grease to rub/scratch off any stain that has gotten onto your hands. It made my hands look good as new!)

Ain't she a beaut? The holes in which the supporting slats were in were much harder to stain. I took a small paintbrush and stained the holes and slits. 

 After all of the painting and staining, I grabbed my dad's staple gun* and stapled the particle board to the our rim of the table. Make sure to put a lot of staples into that bad boy. I also stapled the particle board to the dividers for extra stability. I feel that as long as Little A doesn't flat out jump in between the dividers when the top is open, it should hold up nicely. Don't worry about how the original top looks, that will be the underbelly of the table.

Now, the top took more time to create than the entire table. This part was a pain in the butt. I am no genius of wood and how you put them together, so bare with me. Oh, and I used six boards instead of the pictured five for the top. If I was to do this part over, I would have purchased a kreg jig*, created pocket holes in each board and attached them together before putting the support slats on. Unfortunately, I didn't have a kreg jig, but I did have heart. That's all it takes right? HA! That's funny right there. The only things I had were those support slats, wood screws, wood glue and a staple gun. But hey, I made it work for me!

To create the top, I took Gorilla Wood Glue* and pushed each board together. Then, and here comes my unconventionality, I took that beloved staple gun and and stapled each board together underneath where the support slats would go. I put four staples connecting each board to one another on both sides. All in all, I used forty staples for the top. That might be a little unneeded, but I didn't want the thing to fall apart on me.

Then came the support slats. I had to cut one side of the support slats in half and remove a little bit of each side to ensure that the top would lay flat because of the smaller divider. It worked and I'm not changing it so there. (:

In the image, I had already tried a few different methods, and one of them was what you see with a metal support underneath the support slat. Needless to say, that caused the top to be uneven. I also added an insane amount of screws into the finished top, around two per board per side.

I put the hinges on the table and top. I purchased small hinges, which I feel worked for me. 

Isn't it pretty in silver? And just because I like looking at Little A's new tables, a few pictures!

Come back in a few days and I will show how I upholstered his chairs with a no sew way!

Have you hacked any IKEA lately?


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