Q: Help, Apartment Therapy community! We have the Ikea Gilbert chairs around our dining room table and love them, except that they scratch the heck out of our hardwood floors. We've tried attaching those little felt pads with Goo (heavy duty adhesive) and they just come off.
I think it has something to do with the little black ends of the chair legs being adjustable (on a ball hinge). We don't want to ditch the chairs or have a rug under them. Any ideas?
Sent by Rachel
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Turn chairs over and shoot a dab of hot glue on the bottom of the legs. Make sure you put enough that it creates sort of a cushion. Not too thick because it'll just fall right off when you move it again. This should do the trick
make sure glue dries completely before turning over.
Not sure if it would work for you, but I have a thing for chair socks: http://idreamofchairs.com/tag/chair-socks/
Can you attach/install small wheels on the bottom of these legs?
This is something I'm seriously thinking about doing to my dining room chairs or at least 2 of them to test them out.
Hardware stores sell rubber tips for chairs, like these. Not sure how they would work with the ball hinge, but for $2.19, it's worth a shot.
We use very small felt pads with adhesive backs. No problems with scratching at all.
Have you tried the furniture slider pads? I use these under an ottoman and they're great. They're a hard slick plastic.
A tennis ball at the foot of each leg - they look cool too!
Can you dip the legs in Plasti-Dip or make pads using Sugru (www.sugru.com)?
I have those chairs, and my previous landlord required that everything in his precious historic-registry home have felt on the bottom. So we used some of the smallest adhesive felt pads, and that satisfied him. But they didn't stay on very well, and my biggest issue with them is that the adhesive was a bit larger than the chair's feet, and dust bunnies got stuck to them all the time. Not a good look.
I now have my Gilbert chairs on a linoleum floor that no one cares about, so they're feltless.
But I have a friend who has similarly small-footed chairs, and she just takes 4-6'' squares of thick felt and ties them on with string. They look like little pouches on every foot. It looks very cute, kind of cottage-y. Plus, you can choose any color combination you want.
I'm not sure how well it would work with Gilbert, but you might try some of the great, durable ideas from other commenters and if you want to cuten them up, try tying some felt covers around the feet.
I had the same trouble with the felt pads falling off of our Gilbert chairs. We bought the kind at the hardware store, like some of the commenters are suggesting, and they just kept falling off. I think they might have been too thick, in combination with the adhesive not being strong enough to withstand the sliding of the chairs from out and under the table. So, what I did was cut small circles out of wool felt, much thinner than the kind they sell for chairs. Then I used gorilla glue and actually glued them on, instead of relying on adhesives that don't stick. Good luck!
I obsessed over this same problem for a few months. Try FlexiFelt pads. http://www.flexifelt.com/p-77-6815d-flexi-felt-clear.aspx
The Gilbert leg is thin and annoyingly hard to fit with most felt pads. FlexFelt stays because it is stretched over it.
i second the tennis balls solution - in hot pink please. If I may, I wish to add a comment on the chair itself, I find it nice to look at but ridiculously so, because it is so uncomfortable that it will shorten any dinner party. A real pain in the butt, and no back support to speak of. So go on, protect your floors. Meanwhile, your guests will grin and bear it.
Just a thought.
Actually, IKEA sells those little felt stick-on pads - they are the absolute best ones I've ever found... they beat the ones at hardware stores hands down! I think it is something like 2 bucks for a dozen or so... they are white and the small ones fit perfectly on the bottom of these chairs - you don't see them at all. You will want to change them after about six months.
Have you thought about using Sugru? http://sugru.com/
I have banned adhesive felt tips from our all-hardwood house. They flatten, fall off, and become hopelessly swaddled in dust.
Instead, I am devoted to All-Glides, which have sturdy, high-quality felt on the tip engineered like a thumb-tack. You tap the tack into the legs of your furniture. The tips aren't visible, last forever, and keep your furniture gliding quietly and damage-free across the floor. There are many sizes, so you can cover everything from the thin legs of Ikea chairs (we have the Gilbert at our kitchen table!) to thick coffee table legs. www.allglides.com
Try GlideGuys Glides. GlideGuys attach with a small screw into virtually any leg. GlideGuys have a dual tilt / rolling function to adapt to uneven flooring. GlideGuys have interchangeable bases - felt for hardwood & rounded hard base for carpet. Bases can be purchased separately for easy replacement without replacing the entire glide. Works on any floor and protects any floor. They can be found at www.GlideGuys.com.