My poor IKEA LACK coffee table has been through a lot. Originally black, I attempted to paint it silver (big mistake), then painted it white, then covered it with a white and gold patterned contact paper. For year’s I’ve wanted to cover it with some sort of reptile skin. I never imagined it would turn out THIS fantastic.
Here’s what I did:
I ordered about 3 1/2 yards of this awesome Faux Leather Gator fabric in Pearl White from FABRIC.com. It’s upholstery fabric with felt backing, but it’s not too heavy.
After I disassembled the table, I laid the large pieces on top of the fabric and cut around, leaving about 2 inches around each side.
One of the problems I face was figuring out how to make the finished product look as smooth and seamless as possible. I ended up cutting a diagonal line at each corner and then hand-sewed together from the inside.
Perfect solution! The piece now fit the top of the table like a glove.
Enter the staple gun. I pulled the fabric as tight as I could so that it would lie flat on its top and stapled along all sides on the bottom of the table. For the bottom shelf of the table, I didn’t sew the edges. It’s much thinner than the table top, so it was far easier to simply fold and staple underneath to get the effect I needed.
The legs, however…
Most difficult part! I wanted to make sure the legs looked clean, so I decided to sew the fabric here as well. The leg is 8 inches all around, so I measured and cut the fabric accordingly, then sewed together with a sewing machine. There’s a screw on the inside of each leg that the bottom shelf sits on. I had one hell of a time getting the fabric tight enough not to sag once on the leg, but not too tight that it wouldn’t slip over that screw. Only a few cuts on the hands and several broken nails!
To make the legs look more finished, I stapled the fabric to the top and bottom of each leg.
VOILA!
From interior design to cooking, entertaining to DIY projects, you'll find it here. My name is Catharine McNelly, and though I was born and raised in the Midwest, I now call the concrete jungle of Manhattan home. Here at domesticitie., I share my love, inspiration and guidance for everything domestic. I'd love to hear from you: 
This is insanely awesome.
Are you kidding with how amazing this is? I’ve been thinking of ways to make my Ikea lack side tables be MORE. Just more interesting, more beautiful (or just beautiful cause know they are anything but) just more everything. Do you think that I can do this with fabric? While I like the faux croc, I didn’t see a color that would work for me. This was bril. Love it.
I think it’d be easier with fabric, actually. My faux gator is upholstery fabric, so its thickness doesn’t make it the easiest to work with. I’d love to see the result if you try!
Thanks for sharing, I’m actually bout to tackle a similar project with my LACK coffee table and have been torn about whether to use fabric or paper.
Thanks, Fay! I used sticky contact paper on the table prior to going all out with the upholstery fabric. It looked nice for a few weeks, but really started to lose its luster on the edges after a few weeks. If you have time and (a lot) of patience, definitely recommend fabric. =)
I love what you’ve done here! Not quite completely sure how you sewed the corners for the top, though, but it looks fantastic!
Thanks, Sue! Really appreciate the kind words.
Genius. It’s beautiful. Your care and attention to detail paid off.
Thanks, Monica!
Very cool! Also kudos for loving Young House Love
LOVE Young House Love. Thanks, T. Riggs!
Your coffee table looks fantastic! I bet there were some super frustrating parts, but it’s totally worth it!
Thanks, Kelly! My hands certainly weren’t looking or feeling pretty afterwards, but totally worth it.
Great job! It’s amazing how these simple little tables can be made over so many times!
This table is an inspiration!… but I don’t understand the sewing aspect. Can you further explain? I want to make one as nice as yours!
I’m working on illustrations to further explain the sewing. Wish I’d had someone around to take photos of me while I was working on the table!
WOW! Your table turned out so good! I can’t believe you sewed the corners and the legs! Definitely worth the effort for those crisp edges
Beautiful job on the table. I also wish I had enough sewing skill to pull that off. I recently bought faux emu vinyl to recover some chairs. It had this strong PVC smell I could not get rid of. Did you have that problem with your vinyl?
No problem with PVC smell thankfully!
This looks amazing!!! You have way more patience than I do but man it was worth it. That really looks fantastic!
Oh my. SO impressed. Wondering how many years/projects preceded this impressive effort.
Thanks, Keta! =)
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How much fabric did you need?
Whoops…I just saw 3 1/2 yards!excited to give this a shot.
I probably used about 2 yards. I definitely have leftover fabric. But just in case I messed up or something happens in the future, I wanted to have extra on hand!
This is awesome! It is exactly the fabric/style I was looking to convert my expedit (1×5) into a modern seating bench.
Simply masterful!