Upgrade your $30 Ikea high chair with these accessories

The iconic Ikea high chair is ubiquitous. You can find them just about everywhere, from restaurants to daycares to your 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.

Frustrated by Antilop's hard-to-remove tray, overly roomy seat and the fact that none of the Ikea accessories fit with the decor of her home, Ohio-based 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 white Antilop seat insert (which isn't currently available from Ikea Canada, unfortunately, but is on the US Ikea site 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. (FYI, occupational therapists say that that high chairs without footrests can be uncomfortable for babies, which can make mealtime difficult.)

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.