If you have kids you know the options for their gear are endless. I hadn’t put much though into what highchair we would use until it our Doctor gave us the green light to start with solids. I had heard that the super inexpensive IKEA Antilop Highchair was highly recommended by a lot of moms. Like most IKEA items it’s sleek, simple and easy to clean. Then I found this awesome little company Yeah Baby Goods. They make accessories to customize the Antilop and I was sold! Read below how I used Yeah Baby Goods and some contact paper to makeover my IKEA Antilop Highchair.
Why the Makeover?
Firstly I need to talk about why we needed to make some tweak to the Antilop to ensure that our daughter learned good eating habits. We took the Feeding Littles Baby Led Weaning e-course before we started on our solids journey. One of the co-owners, Judy Delaware, is an Occupational Therapist specializing in feeding therapy. She says that when we are well positioned for any activity we are more likely to stay and endure that activity for longer periods. When we feed our babies, we want them to focus on eating and see it as an enjoyable experience, not distracted and trying to find a comfortable position.
Here are some important points from Judy about proper positioning
- Baby should not be leaning to either side or to the back
- Footrest should reach their feet
- Baby should be leaning slightly forward into a “positive tilt” just like an adult would when eating
- Make sure the height of the tray table is high enough that bay can reach their food, if baby led weaning
Based on the above tips the IKEA Antilop in it’s original state falls short on a few of those points. Enter Yeah Baby Goods. I came across their profile on Instagram and though what a great business they have developed! It’s a small family run operation and they exploded into popularity over the pandemic. Each week I kept my eye on their limited release patterns for their cushion covers. They were selling out of 1000 cushion covers in less than 10 minutes some weeks!
So what do they sell? YBG creates fabric cushion covers for the inflatable cushion that you can purchase for the Antilop. They use so many different fabrics that there is one, or many, options to fit any style. I was hooked when I found the exact same Eucalyptus Print by Erin Kendal that we used for the wallpaper in our nursery!
Then I saw that they made footrests for the Antilop – perfect! Now I feel more assured that the IKEA Antilop is a great option for us and an inexpensive one, even better!
I chose the Maple Footrest because I wanted a very neutral wood and I was able to snag the Australian Eucalyptus Leaves cushion cover. In the meantime I wanted to do something to the silver legs of the Antilop. I searched Amazon for a Maple woodgrain contact paper to wrap the legs.
DIY Maple Adhesive Wrap
This DIY was SUPER easy. I was originally thinking about painting the legs gold but then I was worried about fumes from the paint even after it dried. First I checked to see how far up I would need to cover the legs so that when they were attached to the seat you wouldn’t see any of the silver. I measured it and cut enough paper to cover the leg as close as possible without any overlap.
I peeled back about a cm of the entire length of the paper. I lined up the bottom edge of the paper to the bottom of the leg and stuck the entire length. Then I proceeded to roll the leg while pulling back the paper to ensure that it stuck as flat as possible. If you run into any creases you can easily peel back and try again. It took me about 30 minutes to do all four legs and I had to re-do a couple of them to get the creases out. I’m so happy with the results!
Then it was time to attach the footrest. Also super easy! YBG sends rubber rings that you slide onto the legs, put the footrest in place and then slide up another set of the rings to hold it in place. The rings allow the footrest to be adjusted when baby grows.
I want another cushion cover because it definitely does get dirty during feeding and I just want different options! We’re not feeding her 3 meals a day yet so the cleanup is manageable. I wipe it down after or take the cover off completely rinse it and then throw it in the wash when we do the baby laundry.
