Is anyone else fangirling over the new season of Game of Thrones? Actually, forget that. I’ve been fangirling over Game of Thrones since the pilot. And the fact that Michele Clapton, the costume designer for the first five seasons of GoT, revealed that the Night’s Watch capes are literally just modified IKEA rugs makes me love Game of Thrones even more. I guess everyone, including TV characters, can use some IKEA in their life.
Clapton shared the clever IKEA hack during a lecture at The Getty Museum in Los Angeles last year. Starting at the 27:31 mark of the below video, she describes how the costume team modifies the rugs to give them an aged look. “We take anything we can. We cut, and then we shaved them, and then we added strong leather straps, and breakdown which is like a religion on Game of Thrones.” FYI: Breakdown is the process of making a costume look worn or distressed. (So, sort of like the DIY jeans I made last weekend?)
Thanks to PEOPLE and BuzzFeed, diehard Game of Thrones fans might be able to buy the exact rugs Clapton used. BuzzFeed guesses the show used the RENS white sheepskin rug while PEOPLE thinks the TJEN white rug is the more likely choice.
Basically this proves what we already knew: IKEA is quite possibly the greatest place on earth. Even a TV show with a budget of $10 million per episode uses their products.