How to make the $30 Antilop look expensive

It’s no secret that Ikea is a great place to buy affordable baby products. But here’s one way to customize one of their most popular items.

The iconic Ikea high chair is ubiquitous. You can find them just about everywhere, from restaurants to daycares to your mom-friends’ houses. It’s no secret that Ikea is a great place to buy affordable baby products, and at $29.99, the Ikea Antilop high chair is tough to beat. It’s easy to clean, the legs come off, and if you have more than one, you can even stack them. But as great as the Ikea high chair is, it’s admittedly a bit basic—and the same goes for the Ikea-made accessories that go with it.

Enter Yeah Baby Goods.

Ikea Antilop high chair

Frustrated by the hard-to-remove tray, overly roomy seat and the fact that none of the Ikea accessories fit in with the decor of her home, mompreneur Katie Kruithof decided to give her chair an upgrade. She designed dishwasher-safe, food-grade silicone placemats to fit perfectly into the existing tray, which can be removed for easy clean-up. Next came designer fabric covers for the plain Antilop seat insert (which isn’t currently available from Ikea Canada, but you can grab one in the US for US$6). In 2016, she opened an Etsy shop and started selling the goods to other Ikea-loving parents.

In 2019, she added adjustable footrests in bamboo, maple and cherry wood to give the chair the perfect finishing touch. Note: occupational therapists agree that high chairs without footrests can be detrimental to mealtime success as it leaves the baby’s feet dangling, which can be quite uncomfortable.

While lots of other hacks of the Antilop chair exist on the internet, Kruithof easily has one of the most aesthetically pleasing approaches.

Take a look at some of the products below (Pinterest moms, you’ve been warned!):

A social justice-themed cushion cover.

Cute legs showing off the bamboo footrest.

A Pinterest-worthy set-up.

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