The Best IKEA Decor Items for a Stylish Home on a Budget

The top 20 IKEA decor items that look high-end for a low price to decorate a home that is timeless and with a modern farmhouse style.

This post has been one I’ve written in my head before. Because so often when I look around our house I think, “Gosh. I really do have an IKEA decor love affair going on.”

I’m not sure if it’s my Swedish roots or the fact that I just really love a great deal, but when I walk into our nearby IKEA, I lose. my. mind!

I will say though you have to do it right. Because there’s a fine line between stylish home decor and hi-I-live-in-a-college-dorm-room.
So I thought it’d be fun to round up some of my favorite IKEA items that look high end for a low price, if you’ve ever felt lost there.
(By the way, this isn’t a sponsored post or anything. Pretty sure the peeps at IKEA don’t know I exist. I just like passing on any valuable information I can to y’all.)

The Best IKEA Decor Items for a Stylish Home on a Budget

1. Vadholma Plate Shelf / Rack

This plate rack I got at IKEA has actually been discontinued (called Galemby), but they have one very similar to it now. It’s $70, and I swear I couldn’t even build it for less than that. I painted ours in Fusion Mineral Paint Coal Black.

2. Ritva Curtains

I looooooove IKEA’s curtains! It’s really the only place I go to get them because most home decor stores carry curtains that are only 84″ long. IKEA carries lots of options that are 96″ or longer so you can get that gorgeous floor-to-ceiling action. These are $25 per pair! My favorite part is the linen-like texture they have. I can’t even make them out of bed sheets for that.
You can let them puddle on the floor or hem them with simple hemming tape or Heat n Bond. (Thinking I need to hem mine but we’ve had a million other projects going on.)

3. Lenda Curtains

My other favorites of IKEA decor that look high-end are these Lenda curtains. They have a really pretty stitching detail. I cut the tabs off of the tops of mine and hung them up with clip rings to make them look a tad more fancy.

4. Matilda Curtains

These curtains are my favorite for a playroom or kid’s room since they’re light and flowy and have a sweet raised texture on them. I added pom pom trim to these in our old playroom to look like the pricey version in Anthropologie.

5. Picture Frames

They have SO many great, basic frames for really cheap, and a lot of them come already matted, which is a bonus. I’m a sucker for matted black and white prints in frames because they are so timeless. I put free public domain images of vintage clotheslines in them for our laundry room.

And I hung these up with black and whites of our own family photos for our foyer gallery wall.

6. Faux Plants

I swear it’s hard to find good looking faux plants, especially inexpensive ones. Most of the ones I’ve seen at IKEA actually look really convincing. They have great real plants too, but they don’t stand a chance against my black thumb.

I even got a pair of artificial boxwood trees (these cypress trees would work too) for our front porch. No one EVER guesses they’re totally fake, even up close. (They were only seasonal and have been discontinued, but they always have new artificial plants every 6 months or so.)

7. Farlov Sofa

I’ve dedicated two whole blog posts to this sofa along with how it’s holding up because it’s a WINNER in my book, especially if you have kids and pets. I rip that slipcover off whenever I need to, toss it in the wash, and it’s like a brand new couch. I know I’ve seen one almost exactly like it in Pottery Barn, but of course the PB version is $1,000 more.

8. Stocksund Chairs

We have two of these slipcovered chairs from the Stocksund line too that we’ve been really happy with. They’re really wide, almost like a chair and a half, and very easy to curl up in.

9. Ektorp Sofa

We had the Ektorp sofa in our playroom in our last house, and it was easy to wash the slipcover too. Usually, I could get away with just washing one cushion cover if one every got dirty instead of the entire thing. It’s not as deep-sitting as the Farlov, and it’s on the short side, but we liked it.

10. Sinnerlig Pendant Light 

We just installed this pendant light in Olivia’s new playroom and it is cuuuuuuute! It looks like something out of West Elm. The light fixtures are some of the best IKEA decor you can buy. This one is a little bit on the dim side, so if you don’t have other lighting in the room to help it out, this one might not be bright enough for you.

11. Billy Bookcases

We’ve loved using Billy bookcases so much for built-ins that we’ve installed them TWICE! It’s way easier and cheaper using these that are already made than building entirely from scratch.
Here’s the tutorial for our short version.

And here’s the tutorial to build floor-to-ceiling built-ins.

12. Art

I always forget about the art and posters in IKEA decor, but they have some really great ones that they change out frequently. In our old playroom, I found a cute poster of theirs that I cut up to stick on some framed cork boards for pops of color.

13. Desk Lamps

These armed lamps we had on our nightstands in our old master bedroom were only $40 that look exactly like $100 versions I’ve seen in more high-end stores.

14. White Dinnerware

I’m a big fan of their plain white dishes, but they have some really pretty patterns too.

15. Vases and Pitchers

My favorite vase is this big glass one I got there, and I like that it can double as a hurricane lantern with a large pillar candle inside of it too.

If you’re a fan of farmhouse, their white pitchers are my favorite for flowers or for using in the kitchen.

16. Throw Blankets

I use their throw blankets all the time, especially the ones that have lots of texture. 

17. Step Stool

We like this step stool so much that we bought two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Both of ours are currently splattered in paint because they’re the perfect height for painting our rooms. We keep them in the bathrooms so Olivia can reach the sinks, and we use them a lot in our kitchen so she can help us with baking and cooking whenever she wants.

18. Jars and Baskets

Their Korken jars are my favorites for keeping dry goods in our pantry air tight. And they’re glass, so we don’t have to worry about any plastic chemicals. I use their Byholma baskets quite a bit too, mainly because I love the gray wash on them.

19. Slipcovered Dining Chairs

We carried the slipcover love into our dining room because we love the look of upholstered dining chairs that can stand up to a messy kid. It’s been 5 months since we bought these Henriksdal chairs, and so far, we couldn’t be happier! The covers can be tossed in the wash, and to get the wrinkles out, I put them on damp and steam out any wrinkles in the skirt. They’re pretty comfy too.

20. Christmas Decorations

I went nuts this past year at Christmas because all of their artificial holiday greenery was so cheap! And I knew we’d use it over and over again. I picked up these white poinsettias for our planter wall.

And these boxwood wreaths were around $10.

I ended up buying a pack of their gingerbread cookies in the grocery section too and having fun decorating them to hang up as garland. So very Scandinavian-ish.

Aaaaand I already have a list of items in my virtual shopping cart for the next time I visit IKEA. I’m telling you… I have a problem. 😉

Do you have any IKEA favorites? I’m thinking our next visit will be for some outdoor furniture to get summer ready around here.

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