I Could Live at Ikea... Oh, Wait! We Already Do.

Well, practically. I swear almost every piece of furniture in our home is from Ikea.

When we first moved in here, we had about 5 or 6 Ikea pieces. Then shortly afterwards we acquired more, some from a shopping expedition and some from Matt's bosses, who were kind enough to bestow us with these Ikea shelves and wardrobes that had just been collecting dust in a storage facility. I'm pretty sure that the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry here is from Ikea. And the previous owners left us with wardrobes that also look very Ikea-like.

Now, while I'm all for recycling and free stuff, from day one that Matt's bosses' hand-me-downs came into our home, I'd been wanting to get them out. At least the behemoths that are these (Picture three of these in a row. In my haste to get rid of these, I forgot to take a decent picture of them all together):

here's a side view of them in a row:


In our Spring Cleaning bout, we finally got rid of three out of four of these hideous (to me) eighties-looking wardrobes. The last one (pictured above) is still with us until we come up with a better solution for our extra bedding, linens, etc. They were actually great storage units, and if we had painted them white or black, which we initially intended to do, they probably wouldn't have bothered me as much. But my biggest peeve with them is the overhang above the doors, which was designed for lighting to be put there. Practical, yes. Pretty? No!

I generally heart Ikea, though. When you're on a limited budget, but still want stuff that is stylish, Ikea is a great place to shop. And there's nothing like a little retail therapy to lift your spirits, if only temporarily.

Let's just say that I had time to develop a pretty extensive wishlist since our last trip there. Plus we had the perfect excuse to get some new things since we had just gotten rid of some old ones.

So Tuesday night was spent at Ikea.

As we walked around, Matt was convinced that the founder of Ikea is a genius. He marveled at how this man thought to create affordable and therefore "disposable" furniture. Apparently, despite his wealth, he still only files economy and wears a $100 suit.

I don't think Matt thought he was a genius last night though, when we spent part of it putting together this dining table, with cheap screws that could have been the demise of our new eating surface.

And these much-needed hampers, which you wouldn't think would be hard to assemble, but actually require a great deal of force to put together. You need a hammer for them.


I originally had wanted to get this table and these chairs in white, which look so sleek and great together. But after seeing them in person, you understand why the table is only $69. If you want to feel like hurling after a meal, get this table, because it will wobble every time you lean on it.

And the chairs, not too comfortable on the tush.

So I'm just going to paint the much sturdier table we got in white, to achieve the same look. Chairs will have to scavenged, possibly off of Craigslist.

We were also shopping for a sofa-bed since my mom is coming for a visit in May and we don't have a proper guest bed. I had been thinking about this one in white, after doing some research online, but again in person wasn't so thrilled about it.
We saw this one instead, but it's not on the Canadian website, so I'm not sure if it's available, or if there's a huge waiting time for it. Why do sofa-beds have to be so expensive? And you don't even know if they'll be comfortable.

If anyone can recommend a sofa-bed or a place to find some decent and affordable ($1000 or less) brand new ones in Toronto, please let me know!

Besides obsessing over home decorating lately, I've been printing up more scarves for this crafty chick, printing up tees to send to a new store and packing and mailing orders.

How fitting is this scarf for this post?

Yep. Still got Ikea on the brain.

Okay, I'm off to do print some more things. Look for new items in the shop before the week's end.