I have hacked IKEA again, this time the Poang chair.
I believe everyone owns at least one item of furniture from IKEA. In 2005, I bought my first real furniture purchase and it was from everyone's favorite Swedish super store. I was 23, just out of college and started my
first teaching job. I was now bringing in a "lavish" teaching salary and wanted my
bedroom to have a chair. As everyone knows, a chair in a bedroom means that you have made
it so, with my copious amounts of disposable income, I purchased the Poang Chair. You might not know the name, but you know at least one person with this chiar in their home.
Ok, so its not such a unique heirloom of a chair, but it was awesome at the time.
Ok, so its not such a unique heirloom of a chair, but it was awesome at the time.
Fast forward to today and add a few digits to my age. The chair ain't looking so hot in my
actual adult living room. It so much
isn’t the wood, but more of the cushion. I bought the base model with the beige. I had recovered the cushion with a microfiber suede fabric a few years back, but my
sewing skills were not up to par with my mothers and it outlived its welcome in the living room. The chair needed help and I knew what to do.
The base model of the Poang has a basic cushion, but it has an older, better looking and more refined brother, the Webbing Back Poang. This chair is very similar to the base with the same frame, but with a more modern style. I already owned the frame and was ready to make a similar and arguably more stylish version.
Materials
- Poang chair frame
- ~10 feet of 2” inch nylon strap?
- Heavy duty staples and gun
- Lighter
- Ruler
- Cutting mat
- Rotary cutter
The cutting mat combined with the rotary cutter and ruler was a huge help. I am constantly doing
little projects, so this was a worth while investment. If you aren’t doing crafts or projects often, then just use scissors and a regular measuring tool.
The chair has an existing support fabric that held the cushion in place on the chair. You will need to take that off the chair in order to put the weaved stap on. It comes off fairly obviously and easily.
Measure the width of the chair prior to cutting the nylon straps. It is much better to measure more than less because there will be trimming at the end.
Note, the weaving won't allow you to go all the way down the chair because of the layout of the frame, but it still will support the weight of an adult if you do it similar to the picture.
You will need to take apart the back of the chair starting from the bottom when attaching the lower back support. It is not difficult. You need to use the "IKEA tool", AKA an allen wrench. Speed things up with a ratcheting allen bit or allen driver. On a side note, our kitchen remodel was heavily sourced with IKEA cabinets. On the front page of the multi-page kitchen instruction manual was a large picture of a dual sided allen wrench. Thanks, IKEA, we love you too. We opted for a power drill with an allen bit, not your tiny pocket sized wrench.
Weave the straps together first and then lay them out on the
chair. Make sure you measure to make sure what you have weaved will fit the space. If the back will be exposed, the straps can be brought further into the inside portion of the chair support. In our case, the back of the chair will not be seen, so it allowed for slightly less precise work.
Strap by strap, continue to staple one side of the nylon strap to the back of the frame. Pulling as tightly as you can, staple the other side. I used my husbands muscles to
pull them really taught before I stapled. Repeat the process until you have weaved across the top, bottom and the seat. Finally, trim the excess straps close to the staples and then burn/singe the edges with the lighter to prevent fraying
It doesn’t look as polished from the back, but it is a huge improvement from what it was originally, and it is just as comfortable, if not more. The cost is about $20 versus driving to IKEA (a long
drive for me) and spending another $99 bucks on a new chair.
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