Budget Living Room Makeover: How We Created Our Dream Couch By Making Over our 7 Year Old IKEA KIVIK Couch
**This was from a blog post I wrote back in 2010 when I was furnishing my very first Bedstuy, Brooklyn apartment on a super budget! I wanted to keep this post and several others because I love being able to look back and watch as my style has evolved over the years. So much fun! I hope you enjoy it as well!**
Recently, my design a.d.d. has been flaring up again and causing me to think of more ways I change up the apartment. I rearranged my bedroom a couple times last month and now I have decided to move onto the living room. For the last year or so,I have been in love with the look of my living room, but its missing the comfort that one would expect from a living space. I feel like my living room is more of a show room at times. We rarely sit on my beautiful mid-century modern Danish daybed/couch, actually, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've sat on the couch and watched a movie. Occasionally, my roommate and I will sit out there and catch up, but its always very brief. I definitely feel like we are neglecting this large living space and I would really love to utilize it more. So the plan is to make the room more inviting, by adding a large rug and getting a new comfortable couch.
Two things that were very important during my couch search: One, I did not want to get a used couch, and two, I wanted to spend less than $700. I knew this would be a task and started searching online for inexpensive but stylish modern couches. It was hard because of course most of the couches I really liked were over $1000 and that just wasn't in the budget. Of course, like always I reverted back to good 'ole IKEA. Luckily for me, they just came out with a new line of couches called KIVIK, that met my couch criteria. I took a trip to the store and found my wonderful couch. It is a beautiful light gray brown corduroy couch with big comfy cushions. As soon as I sat in it, I knew it was the one! The couch alone was $549 and ran me just $651 with tax and shipping.
After picking out the couch, I moved on through the showroom and found GISLEV, a beautiful gray 6.5" x 4.4" area rug with a very subtle white flower design. I thought that bringing in a large area rug would really warm up the space. Best of all, it only cost me $20!! What a steal!
So for now, I have my rug at home and I am just waiting for the couch to be delivered. I'm super excited to see how it all comes together. I will definitely be sad to see my beautiful modern daybed go, but I know I will be happy when I have a very comfortable living room space to come home to. I will be posting pics as soon as I get the couch all set up!
2017 Update: I have had my IKEA KIVIK couch for about 7 years now and it is still holding up wonderfully and looks great after some new additions! The couch cushions have held up their shape perfectly which is something you wouldn't expect for a low cost couch. After about 5 years of having the couch, we bought a new updated woven light gray KIVIK couch cushion for around $150. Not a bad price to completely change the look of your couch! Then in 2017 when we moved to Denver and got more space, we purchased the chase lounge and matching cover for about $300. The amazing thing about the chase lounge is you can choose which side you want the chase to be on. The KIVIK couch is super versatile! It comes in several different colors and has multiple sections that can be added to make the perfect couch to fit your room. We love this couch so much and I don't see it going anywhere any time soon. If anything, we may just end up update the couch cushion again in a couple years to give it a new look!
The picture below is from my Bedstuy, Brooklyn apartment
2015 we purchased a new light gray couch cover to give our IKEA KIVIK couch new life!
In 2017, we added the chase lounge to our IKEA KIVIK couch to turn it into an L-shape couch. It's perfect for two adults to be able to lounge comfortably on the couch together :)