Poang Chair Cover Redo
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 08:21PM I may have a master’s degree in American Decorative Arts and the rare training to spot a genuine antique, but I’m not ashamed to say I absolutely love IKEA. It’s my Disney World. Go to the North Jersey IKEA on a Saturday and you’ll find countless languages being spoken, families of all shapes and sizes, bright colors, themed vignettes, tasty food, and hopefully a souvenir or two to take home. And there’s no entrance fee, so it’s better than Disney, really…
Not to mention that even if most of the furnishings are cheaply made from MDF, they are at the very least well-designed and affordable. Furniture makes my heart go pitter-patter, and little by little I’m building up a collection of furnishings I really love—gleaned from my parent’s cast-offs, garage & estate sales, and special finds at random stores. But it will be years before everything in my house is something I truly love, so in the meantime I’m happy to make do with what I’ve got: i.e. IKEA.
I’ve had this Poang chair for years, and it’s just sat in the corner of the living room, completely nondescript and boring.
Snooze.
So I decided to give it new life (or life at all) and redo the cover in a bold print. I’m really not at all into animal print, and never thought I would have it in my home, but I found a really beautiful and bold zebra fabric on sale and decided it would work with the science/curio theme we’ve got going in the living room. So I got to work “reupholstering” my IKEA chair.
It definitely spices up the corner.
I reverse engineered the original cover to create the new one, and since I had to make detailed notes and directions for myself I decided to compile a little tutorial for anyone else who might want to take a stab at re-covering a Poang. Some basic sewing knowledge and a few yards of fabric and you’ll be on your way…
Reader Comments (8)
i love it! LOVE IT. my project for this week!
Great idea. The cushion/cover for Avvie's high chair is a little too country for me so I was wondering how hard it would be to make a new one with some trendier fabric. Probably still beyond my skill set, but maybe I can convince Beth to do it using your tutorial as a guide for reverse engineering the cushion.
Thanks for the great tutorial! I'm redecorating my living room and my plain Poang really needed some help. I know what I'll be doing this weekend!
Thanks for posting the pattern to redo the Poang! I've attached a photo of the finished project on Pinterest. http://pinterest.com/cathieherrera/for-the-home/
I just ordered some adorable yellow and white chevron fabric to redo the Poang in my daughter's room plus make a new set of curtains. Thank you SO MUCH for taking all of the guesswork out of redoing the Poang. You are my sewing hero!
I have a Poang that was bought for me back in 1993. Still going strong on its third cover - and i finally bit the bullet and got a leather one. But now the cat has decided that the chair belongs to her, so it's ended up getting covered up with a fleece blanket the whole time.
Such a great idea to make a new custom cover, and I'll definitely give this a try myself!
I would like to make this for my nursery, but I'm curious--what did you do with the head support cushion? It seems like I would want this cushion still on the chair for late-night nursing sessions...
I cannot open your tutorial link for some reason. Is it still up? Thanks!