DIY Ikea Hacks YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO TRY! *From Start to Finish*

Good morning, everyone, in a different location today. Um, it's Sunday. I actually just finished posting the lobby makeover downstairs, and I've been reading some of the comments, and I've just been in such a mood to film one of my older types of content. Like, I want to film an IKEA hacks video so bad. I haven't been to IKEA, I feel like, since I bought this house, and I just want to go. I want to DIY a little bit. I thought it would be fun to do a couple of craft projects with you guys, so we are going to be doing a IKEA hacks video today. I also have yet to do my hair, so if you are a true Lone Fox watcher, you would have seen this in a worse state than this. It's actually not too bad, because it's, like, residual from yesterday. I did want to mention that today's video is sponsored by Helix, and if you're in the market for a new mattress, or you know somebody that's in the market for a new mattress, definitely let them know or take advantage of their Memorial Day sale, guys, because you get up to 25%—actually is 25% off of your order— which is crazy, like, that is such an insane discount for a mattress. I use Helix mattresses whenever I do any sort of bedroom design. They are my favorite mattress for sure, so definitely take advantage of their Memorial Day sale, which I will link in the description box below for you guys. Now, if you remember, I brought a mattress in from my parents' room, actually, just a couple of months back. This is the Helix Luxe mattress, and I actually had them do a sleep quiz online. The great thing about Helix is their sleep quiz provides you with a mattress that's best suited for your sleeping style and your sleeping preferences, so you can ensure that you're getting a mattress that you actually are going to like. But let's just say for some reason you don't like it, you have a 100-day sleep trial with Helix, which is amazing. So you can have them come back, pick up the mattress if it's not exactly what you thought it was going to be, but trust me, you are absolutely going to love your Helix mattress. And I will hands-down say that my sleep quality has improved so much since switching over to the Helix mattress. As many of you guys know, I've shared in the past many times as well that I have quite a few sleeping problems, and I will definitely say that Helix has only benefited in my sleep regimen. And not only do I have a Helix mattress, my parents now have one. I have both my brothers with a Helix mattress. My aunt has a Helix mattress. My friend Kelsey has one. This was us putting Kelsey's in her apartment. So if you, too, would like a Helix mattress, definitely click my link below, which is helixsleep.com slash DrewScott to get 25% off your Helix mattress for Memorial Day plus two free pillows. For our first project, we're going to be using one of the new, like, teddy bear shearling throws that Ikea has. These are the Svendage collection, I believe, but they have so many of these. They are so insanely fluffy and high-quality. I'm also going to be using the Manholt chair, which is honestly such a stunning chair as is, but we're going to be using this as a base for our project because it's $80 and it's a great kind of structured base, and it has these two seat cushions, which we're going to be reupholstering in those shearling rugs that we got. Now, I ended up getting two of these rugs, and overall, the cost of this chair is about $120, but when you see it in the end, it really is so stunning. So what I am using is my electric stapler, and if you do upholstery projects often, I highly recommend investing in an electric stapler. I never knew how handy one of these would be, but an actual stapler that you have to use by hand really requires a lot of force. So electric staplers, once you get your hand on one, you're never going to want to use a normal one again. They really work so great, and they're really not much more than an average stapler. So once you go all the way around, you are just going to add as many staples as you can. The nice thing about this fabric is it actually conceals all the staples, so you can't even see any of them once you kind of add them. And I flipped it over, and it was exactly what I wanted it to look like. So fluffy, and it really adds a nice comfort element to the chair as well, I definitely will say. So I'm going to cut out the piece for the back cushion. Now, once I'm going to staple this around the outside, the back cushion actually is going to show because it just has like a metal back that it's attached to. So I'm actually going to be cutting out another circle from my leftover scrap from one of those rug pieces, just using this bowl here that I had on hand also from Ikea to cut out the shape. And I'm just going to staple that directly on top of this section here. Now, you are going to have to feel around once you're done for the actual little holes to insert the screws in, but this is what it looks like. As you can see, very seamless. The backside looks great, but I felt around, and then I just used my scissors to poke a hole through the fabric and made sure it was wide enough for the screw. I also just put the screw in each of the little holes and screwed it in to make sure that it would properly work before fitting together the base, which the base is just three different pieces. You just pop them together like this, and then the seat cushion you just add on like so. Screw it in from the underside in three different spots, and then same exact thing with the back cushion. You're just going to screw it in in three different spots as well, and that's what I meant by the back showed. But as you can see, the fabric is so thick and textured, you can't see any of those staples, and the chair looks absolutely incredible. I think this is such a cute dining chair or even like an accent chair for a vanity or desk. If you love a simple project, this one is for you. These Wicker Baskets IKEA sells, they are called the Samara Basket. We're going to be using the bottom of the basket, so I'm actually going to be testing a couple different stain colors on the lid. This is just great so you can make sure that the stain that you want is actually going to be the color that you desire because we're going to be turning this into a really unique wall sconce. So I tested out three different stain colors. The first one was English Chestnut, the second color here is called Honey, and then this third and final color is Special Walnut. So I just wanted to test all three of those to see how they looked and how they dried down on the stain, and I opted for the left color, which was the English Chestnut. Now I'm going to go through and actually stain the entire kind of base or the larger section of that IKEA basket, and this is going to be the cover for our sconce. So you're going to want to stain this nicely. You can use a foam brush or a rag, whatever you'd like to use, and you can also layer up the stain if you want a darker look to it. I actually wanted mine to read almost medium warm, so I felt one coat of this English Chestnut color was perfect. Now for the actual light source of our sconce, I'm going to be using this Sol Klint sconce from IKEA. This is $29, and we're going to be only using the actual light portion, but this little glass topper is a perfect, like, additional vase, so you can put it on a little side table or something or reutilize it somewhere else, but we're just going to be using the actual light source part that does have a cord. Now, if you want to have this cordless, you could totally opt for a wireable sconce, but I wanted to share with you how this could be a rental-friendly option. So I put my sconce up on the wall as you normally would, and this is how we are making the sconce really unique and adding that shade right over top to kind of give this squared-off interesting shape to the sconce, and I just hung the shade with two small nails, and when you turn this on, it has the most beautiful shadows. I absolutely love it, and the projection from the side is so unique. I think this is such a fun light option. And for our final project, we are going to be using these woven placemats to create a rug, and you could create really any shape of rug you'd like. This is a tag, but they didn't have an actual name on them, and I'm also going to be using some hemp cording. This is how we're going to be attaching them together. So I cut about, like, two-foot sections of this cording, and I'm just going to be attaching these like so. I'm going to tie a square knot, which is essentially right over left, left over right, when you go and tie the knot, and once you have that tied, leave a long tail because you are going to want to use that to tie off the end. Now, what I did next was I wrapped it around six times, so I just went through and wrapped it six times. That just seemed like the perfect amount for me, and I wanted to leave this clip running for a bit so you can actually see, like, how long the process takes. It's extremely quick. You're just going to keep on, like, flipping it through, almost like you're threading these needles with thread, but they are large holes on the sides of the placemat. So you're just going to go around. Once you get to the end, just tie off with the tail that you had from the beginning. Tie it off into another square knot, going right over left, and then the left strand over the right. That's just going to give you a high-quality, strengthful knot, courtesy of Boy Scouts. Now, this process is going to be pretty redundant from here on out, but I'm actually creating kind of a custom-sized rug for my balcony upstairs because the balcony is—it's not huge, but it's also not small, so I wanted to create kind of a larger size of a runner. So I'm actually creating a custom size using these placemats. I think I ended up getting 14 of them, but you're just going to piece them together just like this. Justin and I actually ended up working on this rug, and it took us, like, maybe an hour from start to finish with both of us actually working on it. So not a long process at all, and it's definitely something you could do, like, in front of watching a movie or in front of the TV. So we just added all of our placemats together, linked them up with that hemp cording, and tied them off. You also could definitely do a zip tie if you wanted to. Like, started off with a really small zip tie and then covered the zip tie with hemp cording as well. And that was everything I did to create this rug. It was extremely simple, and I also love how you can make these into circle shapes because I feel like circle rugs are hard to come by really cute ones. Our last and final project has to be my favorite. We are going to be using these bamboo salad mixing bowls that I feel like everyone has seen at Ikea in the past. And I also picked up this JB Weld product, which is like an epoxy weld. It's just extremely strong adhesive, essentially. But you're going to need six of these bowls because we are going to be making three ball shapes out of the bowls. So I'm just taking the epoxy, and it actually pre-mixes itself in the little spout that it comes out of, which is really cool. And I'm going to be gluing the bowls together just like this. So adding the epoxy around the top edge, and then just placing the bowl on top, making sure that it's perfectly centered. And then letting that cure down for about an hour before we go in with some wood filler. Now, I actually saw somebody on TikTok create some wooden balls out of these bowls a while back. So I wish I found that video or was able to locate the original video, but I loved the concept of creating these wooden balls. I think she used them as decor pieces, but I'm actually going to be using mine as coffee table legs. Once that has cured down, you should have three wooden balls looking just like this. So we're going to be using some of this stainable wood filler. And I like the one in the tube for this process just because it's thinner, and I feel like it works quite a bit better. So I'm just going around the seam there and actually adding some wood filler in, and just making sure that I'm smoothing it out. But make sure you add an excess because you're going to want to have enough wood filler to where when you go and sand after the fact, that the wood filler actually is going to be flush with the bowls, and it's not going to be sitting underneath and creating that seam. So make sure to add more than you actually think you do. Now here's where you can spend more money or less money. I just picked up a 4x4 piece of plywood, which of course is not the best wood for a tabletop. But I want to share with you how you can make it beautiful because it's only $45 for a 4x4 piece. So I actually just drew out a very organic circle shape, and I'm going in with my jigsaw. And I tried to use up as much of that 4x4 board. That way you get that large tabletop because you don't want it to be a small tabletop with those large chunky ball feet. You really want to have that scale kind of proportion that you know. So once I cut out my shape, I went in with a orbital sander. And this is where purchasing plywood is going to not come in very handy. Because you are going to need to sand the edges like crazy along with the top to get it nice and smooth. So I started out with an 80 grit. Then I went to a 100 grit. Then a 120. And I finished everything off with a 180 grit. And I did this on the edges and the top. But this is how you're going to get a nice smooth base. And I really do love the graining on plywood. I think it's really interesting. But you could always opt for purchasing just a better quality piece of wood. That when you cut it out, already sanded down and ready to be kind of finished. Once you let your wood filler dry down for a couple of hours, you could bring our wooden balls outside. And we are going to sand these down the same exact way. Starting off with an 80 grit. Then going to a 120. And finishing off with a 180. Just to get all of that sealer off the top of these bowls. Because these are originally used for food. So you could put things like, you know, soups or liquids inside of these bowls. So we want to get the sealer off. So that it can actually absorb our stain. So this is what it starts to look like. And I also love seeing like kind of the checkerboarded bamboo under these. I could totally see myself using one of these as just a decorative object in the future. Because once you sand it down completely, it's a really, really beautiful almost like white oak color. Now since our plywood is pressed and the edge is not very pretty. I'm actually going to be using a edge banding along with an iron. And you can pick this up at really any hardware store. And it's basically like a wood veneer that has glue on the backside. And when you place it on and iron it, it heats up the glue and melts it onto the side of your piece. So a lot of Ikea furniture has edge banding on it. And this is just going to give our plywood a nice clean edge. But again, if you did get a better quality piece of wood, you wouldn't have to use anything like this. I just wanted to share with you how to make this the cheapest possible way. And I'm going to go in with Minwax's pre-stain first. Since this again is plywood, I want to get the best possible finish that we can out of this. So I'm going in with the pre-stain. This is just going to condition the wood. And make sure that the stain that we actually do apply goes on really even and smooth. So I'm going to apply this coat first. And once that is all applied, I'm going to put it on the sanded down balls as well. Because we are going to go in with stain right after this. I'm going to be using the English chestnut stain by Minwax. And I will say that I thought this was going to turn out quite a bit darker when I put this on. But the plywood really sucks it up kind of indifferently in different parts of the grain. So plywood has a tendency of not really staining properly. But we're going to go in with a gel stain that's quite a bit darker. And even out the finish in the end. So do not worry. I'm going in first with the English chestnut color. And it really adds this kind of orangey warmth to the top of it. But here you can see how grainy it actually is. But the way we're going to fix that is with some gel stain. So gel stain is quite a bit more intense than just traditional oil stain. So I'm going to put this layer of gel stain over the top. These are our new staining gloves. Hopefully you like them. Because we just go through so much gloves. I was like, let's just get an actual pair that we can continuously use for staining. So stained the tabletop. And then just went in and also stained the balls as well. And they actually stained up really, really nice. I was kind of scared when we first applied this. It was getting dark and then also kind of splotchy. But after the second coat of this stain, they actually evened out really well. And the line in the center also really kind of diminished. After the second coat as well. You can see this is what it looked like when one of them was dry. I'm just bringing it in and setting it down. This is going to be one of the legs of our table. Then I'm bringing in the second one. And I'm also bringing in the third one. But the camera freaking stopped recording when I brought that in. So that was rude of it. But once you have all three of the balls in place, you actually are going to use more of that welding material that we used at the beginning to attach the balls together. This one is an unmixed one. So I just mixed it on top just with the back of a paintbrush. And once that was nice and mixed up, we set the tabletop on top to let it start curing. And because I'm impatient and wanted to share this video with you guys sooner, I didn't end up putting a sealer on it or a top coat. But you totally can put a top coat on it as well. I've done that with all of my past furniture pieces that I've created. And I will be doing that with this piece too. But I ended up styling it up. And this is how the coffee table ended up looking like. Thank you guys so much for watching today's video. And I hope that one of these projects you can recreate. Do not forget to check out helixsleep.com to get up to 25% off your Helix mattress, plus two free pillows.