Before & After: Making Ikea Unique

I love Ikea. Everyone loves IKEA. I bet you even people who say they don't love Ikea now and then catch themselves liking something they didn't realize was from there.  Affordable and attractive? What a combo.  The only drawback with there being in Ikea in every town on the planet with a population over 50, is suddenly you start seeing your furniture everywhere.  I don't mind that too much, but I definitely get inspired when I see all the creative things people are doing with Ikea's mass produced wonderfulness.

I subscribe to Ikea Hackers, which is a fantastic blog, so every day an email with 4 or 5 "hacks" comes through, and it's awesome.  Normally it's taking the parts of furniture and making all new pieces with all new purposes, which is great.  But there's something to be said about a simple makeover, so when I saw this one come through, I had to appreciate it's simplicity.

I love them even like that! But that's not all, they took it to the next level with some nice paper:

A basic stool, and some fun colors & papers makes all the difference.  Just think how many different ikea pieces we all have could use a little creativity to make it all your own.  This just reminds me how I've been needing to make the trek and battle the crowds, for some fun (not to mention flat packed!) projects.  Head over to their blog to see more of these stools, it's not in English, but I don't think you really need it to be.  The pictures speak for themselves.  Enjoy!