From $3 IKEA floor mat to flippin' fabulous floor pouf.

Wanna know how a couple of these striped rugs

become this cushy piece of bum lovin'?

Well, sit down and relax. Let me start from the beginning.
I happened upon these beauties a while back whilst browsing on West Elm's website.

What a great {and fashionable} extra seating option, I thought.

{I don't know how it is at your house, but when we get the whole fam together, it always seems like we are running out
of seating. Someone inevitably ends up sitting on the floor, or we end up redecorating by pulling chairs in from every
room in the house. That's all fine and good, family get togethers don't happen all that often, but I thought that next go
around I'd make it easy on myself and get some floor poufs. They are light, easy to move around and "totally in" right
now.}
If money were no option, I probably would have just bought them directly from West Elm. But, since I do not have that
luxury, I had to do the next best thing...knock 'em off.
I don't know if I am just picky {or cheap...or both}, but I couldn't find any fabric that "spoke" to me. I was hoping to
have one of those "long lost lovers reunited moments", you know, where the fabric just appears-totally engulfed in
angelic light and I'm so overcome with emotion that all I can do is crumble to the floor crying. Anywho, it didn't
happen. So I just went home. And that's when I saw these little babies hanging on my banister.

No angelic light, no overflowing of emotion. But hey, whatever.

They are $3 rugs from IKEA. I had bought three of them not really knowing what I'd do with them, but after looking at
them, I realized that they would be an inexpensive and durable option. So I totally ran with it...and hey whadaya
know. I love 'em...not fall on the floor and cry, love 'em, but almost.

All you need is:

mediocre sewing skills {by that I mean, the ablility to "fudge it" a little and sew in a straight
line}.
Three, $3 IKEA rugs
A Zipper {optional, but with five kids I needed my pouf cover to be removable/washable...this is where my fudging
skills came in...didn't know how to sew in a zipper til I did it. The zipper needs to be as close to the size of the
opening as possible...my zipper was 22 inches.}
Filler {I found bean bag filler at K-Mart for $12.99 a bag. You can use fiber fill, old car parts...whatever floats your
boat, but I wanted my pouf to maintain its shape and be extra comfy for my keister. I ended up using a little over one
bag}.
And maybe some extra sewing needles since I broke three during the course of the project.
I started by cutting down one rug into two pieces.
One piece should measure 23in x 23in{or close to that, the widths of the rugs vary from 22 1/2 inches to 23 1/2
inches}, and the other piece should measure around 12in x 23in {again, it's super hard to be totally exact, because
each rug is just slightly different in size}.

Cut down a second rug the exact same way. You should now have 2- 23in x 23in pieces, and 2- 12in x 23in pieces.
Finally, cut your third rug down so that you have an additional 2- 12in x 23in pieces...for a grand total of 2- 23in x
23in pieces and 4- 12in x 23in pieces.

Now for the fun part...sewing. I'll let the pictures do the talking, sound okay?

piece 6 is the second, 23in x 23in piece

once all six pieces are attached, you need to sew the corners. The white arrows indicate where you should do this.

Here's what it should look like after the corners are sewed together.

Now you need to attach two sides of the bottom of the pouf. The picture indicates where to do this.

Here's what it will look like after the two sides are sewn. You should have only one side left unstitched now.
That opening is where your zipper will go...if you want one. If you don't want a zipper closure, you would stitch this
opening closed, leaving a small area open to allow for adding stuffing/filling. You could then, either hand stitch or
machine sew the opening closed after filling.

I realized after I'd made it to this point, that you want both edges hemmed so they have a nice, clean edge. I lucked
out, one of my edges was the selvage edge of the rug, but the other I had to hem under.

I turned the pouf ride side out, and slid one side of the zipper under one side of the opening. I pinned it in place and
sewed the length of the zipper.

Then I unzipped the zipper so that I could work with the other side. I did the same as before, and slid the other side of
the zipper under the other side of the opening, pinned and stitched the length of the zipper.

At this point, you could turn your pouf inside out and reinforce the zipper by stitching just above the top of the zipper,
and just below the bottom of the zipper. My zipper was just slightly shorter than the opening, so I had a little gap at
one end that I needed to hem shut. If you run into this same problem, it's no big deal.
Here's what the final product should look like.

And here's what it should look like after getting filled.

I ended up making two of these bad boys. I spent $18 on 6 rugs, $39 on three bags of filler, and $5 on two zippers...for
a grand total of $62 {or just over $30 for one pouf}. The cheapest pouf I found on West Elm was $219. That's a savings
of $190. Boo ya! You could save a little more money by using a different filler, but I really wanted my poufs to
maintain their shape and have a little firmness to them so I splurged and got the good stuff.
I can't wait to test 'em out tonight and catch up on a little T.V.

DIY POUF - IKEA HACK

20K+

Every magazine I get these days is peppered with gorgeous poufs! The only problem is, my budget doesn't quite
afford me the opportunity to purchase one. So, naturally I decided to make one. M has had this disgusting foam
block he has had forever, and he refused to get rid of it because he loves the way it feels under his feet. Clearly we
have different opinions on what's more important: form or function. So, we compromised to save our relationship.
Pssst ... this is an IKEA hack.
1) 1 yard of fabric or 1.5 yards to be safe (This navajo-inspired fabric is from Home Fabrics and Trims in downtown
LA. You will need to call 213.689.9600 or emailinfo@homefabricsandtrims.com to order the fabric. The fabric is
called Kilim color: black and is $24.95/yd )
2) Scissors
3) IKEA cube/footstool (Mine was an older version that was rectangular they may still have them you just might
need to search more than I had the effort to tonight lol!)

Measure faces of cube. Cut 6 pieces of fabric measuring 1" larger in length and width than each face of the cube.

With fabric inside out, sew fabric pieces together according to the diagram below leaving 1/2" seams. Next, sew one
end of the top piece of fabric to the base.

Remove zipper from IKEA cube cover. Sew zipper on new fabric according to the instructions on Make It & Love
It except keep zipper open when sewing.

Turn fabric right side out. Place IKEA cube without cover into your new and improved cube cover, and pouf you have
a stylish pouf for about 1/4 of the price!

The fabric was about $25, and the cube was about $15, so the total cost for this project was $40 WAY cheaper
than the ones I have seen in magazines and totally customized to fit my family room!
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Step 3: crochet the pouf

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To crochet the pouf you first crochet a spiral circle increasing stitches, then you crochet appx.
3 rounds straight, and then you crochet another spiral where you decrease stitches. I crochet
simply using my fingers because I think it's too much hassle trying to find a crochet-needle in
the right size. You would probably need 15-20mm crochet needle if you want to use a needle.
It's important that you crochet very tight, because afterwards you will fill the pouf, and if the
work isn't tight then gaps in the work will appear, and that is not pretty.
When you crochet, a loop to crochet into always has 2 chains, I crochet into only one of them
and the one to the back, this is because I like the pattern this creates, you get a thin line of
chains that run around the pouf. It's also possible to crochet into both chains, then you will
end-up using a little more yarn.
Rnd1; make a loop, then chain 2, then 6sc into the 2nd loop from the hook, a bit tricky. This
makes the first tiny round.

Rnd2: 2sc into all 6 loops: 12 sc

rnd 3-10; inc. 6 sc evenly spaced: 60 sc.
rnd 11-12 (or 13, 14 depending on how tall you want the pouf); work even in sc.
rnd 13-22; dec 6 sc evenly spaced; 6 sc.
depending on how much yarn you have or how big you want your pouf, you decide how big
you make the spiral. My biggest pouf, the light-grey one had 60 sc at it's max. The smallest,
the dark brown had 48sc at it's max.