DIY Armchair to Nursery Rocker Conversion

When we were putting together the nursery before Eleanor was born, people were always telling us how we needed a rocking chair. Being first-time parents we were like, ‘okay how much do we really need one though because these fancy Buy Buy Baby and Pottery Barn ones are HUNDREDS of dollars?’ It was another one of those things we just avoided addressing until we absolutely had to (like the car seat Alex literally installed in the hospital parking lot the day after the baby was born). But then one day I had an idea – what if we could do a DIY armchair to nursery rocker conversion with the old IKEA armchair we’d had for years?

It’s already comfortable and worn in, the color matched the rest of the nursery and it didn’t really have a home since we’d moved because our new sectional took up so much space in the living room.

Alex wasn’t convinced. He said he had visions of me soothing the baby to sleep in the middle of the night, the rocker parts coming off, and me crashing down to the ground with her in my arms (because I suppose in this vision the chair itself also somehow disintegrates).

Nonetheless I convinced him, and in the last couple of weeks before the baby arrived we finally had our rocker. It worked so well, took literally less than an hour, ended up costing about $60 for the runners and the special drill bit, and now we have the perfect place to read stories with our girl.

Tools & Materials

• IKEA Strandmon wing chair (or other armchair with similar legs)
• Rocker runners
• 1” spade bit
• Four 2.5-inch screws
• Measuring tape

(Make sure you already have everything in our getting started with DIY toolbox!)

How We Did It

We were kind of worried we might need to know anything about physics to figure out how to attach these runners. Alex was going full Zach-Galifianakis-doing-math meme trying to figure it out and I just kind of held the runners up next to the legs and was like, welp, that seems about right.

First things first, the more curved part of the runner faces toward the back and stubby bit goes to the front.

Then, measure 3.5 inches from the front of the runner on the top and that’s where you’ll drill for the front legs to go. The special drill bit you’re going to use is called a spade bit, and it basically drills a big, round hole that the bottoms of the feet will sit in.

The most difficult part of this step is making sure you’re drilling straight down towards the ground, not at an angle in line with the curve on the rocker. The easiest way we found to do this is to have someone hold the rocker runners the same way they would sit on the ground, then have another person drill down.

Make sure you don’t drill the whole way through the runners, you only want to go far enough that the feet will sit snugly inside your new little pocket. We went really slow with our first one and made sure we didn’t go in too far.

More Math

Because we’re notorious for messing up our measurements, once we got that first hole drilled we slipped the foot into it and held it up against the back leg to trace around where that leg goes. If you’ve got the same IKEA Stradmon chair, the second hole will be 21.25 inches back from the front leg, measuring straight across, not along the curve of the rocker, like this.

Again, make sure you’re drilling straight down, not at an angle into the rocker. Repeat on the other side.

Once we had all the holes drilled and made sure the feet fit perfectly in their new homes, we switched out the spade bit for a normal drill bit and drilled a pilot hole from the top of the runner to the bottom, so we knew exactly where the middle would be for our screws. Then, we flipped the chair on its side, attached the runners again and screwed some 2.5 inch screws through that pilot hole we’d just made into the feet to keep them extra secure.

We considered wood glue but honestly felt good with the tight-fitting sockets we’d made and the screws.

Then You’re Done!

We (cautiously) tested out our DIY armchair to nursery rocker conversion and are glad to report, it’s been several months and nobody has fallen to their death in the night. Our favorite house project helper even approves now she’s out in the world.

Optional: Stain or Paint Your Feet/runners

We didn’t do this because the rockers pretty perfectly matched the existing feet on our chair, but if you want to go wild or change up the look, the runners we bought are unfinished and can be painted or sanded.

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