I’ve been looking for dining chairs literally since finding my perfect table almost five years ago now. I found a great dining table at a thrift store back in July 2012, but the table didn’t come with chairs to match. I was fine with that since I had a specific vision for my chairs and I figured they wouldn’t be that hard to find. Cut to me five years later, still looking for chairs. I’ve mostly just been sitting and eating at my couch for the past several years, which has led to some messy accidents (it’s always the cats’ fault.)

This past weekend, my mom and I went on a five-hour road trip to Seattle so we could finally visit the IKEA there that we’ve been planning to go to for forever. Tragically, although we spent three hours in IKEA, we didn’t see much more than half the store before they were closing and we had to leave. On the bright side, I FOUND MY DREAM CHAIRS!

They’re the IKEA Ingolf. I love that they’re simple with a classic farmhouse look to them. The crossed back gives the chair just enough detail that they’re not too boring but keeps the clean lines I was looking for. Also, they are surprisingly comfortable and you can buy cushions to match the chair if it’s not soft enough (spoiler alert: my grandpa wants more cushions.)

It was really easy to put the chair together, too, even for an IKEA-noob like me. When I opened it, the cats were more excited about the box than anything. Freyja was especially excited.

Everything I needed to set up the chair was in the box except a pair of scissors, a Phillips-head screwdriver, and a flat-head screwdriver. I collected those and Freyja gave them a last minute inspection.

I then set up the provided screws and fasteners in a grid, sorted by their number in the instruction manual, so I could find the piece I needed more easily (and so that it looks pretty in photographs, not gonna lie.)

Actually building the chair was easy and straightforward. I just followed the pictorial instructions provided and voilà! I had my dining room chairs!

Now I just need to repaint the table to match them and I will finally have a dining set after five years! I’m glad I didn’t give up on my vision. These chairs are exactly what I was looking for and I can’t wait to set them all up. I also have some other plans for the dining room, but I’ll share that in another post. Have you ever looked for a long time for the perfect item? Did you ever find it or did you settle? Let me know in the comments!

<3

Ruthie