IKEA!!

As I debated and deliberated about what I wanted to do this week I thought about beaches and mountains and then I discovered eBay.

No, not for a vacation, but for a new camera.

Yes, I want a new one. A much improved one. I want Playback Zoom. I have needs.

Therefore, I thought splurging and spending more money driving and staying in Charleston or Topsail or wherever would be better spent toward a crazy expensive camera. Instead of a solo vacay, I went for a solo daycay.

What I'm telling you is that I went to IKEA in Charolotte instead of communing with nature I communed with the sweet smells of home-goods in a giant warehouse.

[rushed picture from the car without checking settings. oops.]

It was delightful. The last time I went to an IKEA, it was a rushed trip, so this time I was leisurely.

For those of you who have never been to an IKEA (Yes, I know it shocks me too, but there are people out there who have never been.), in most IKEAs you walk in the front door and immediately take an escalator upstairs. Then you follow the trails they've created for you so you can see everything. Couches, beds, storage, kitchens, offices, kids and go downstairs to organization, plants, fabric, mirrors, as-is  and furniture pick-up. Along the way, they have rooms set up to show you what you can do with certain amounts of space.

I find these rooms misleading.

OK, so if I have 580 square feet in my apartment you're saying I can put my bed here, couch there, set up my kitchen like that and my bathroom like this? Except I have yet to ever rent, move into, SEE a completely vacant, void square footage apartment. Or house. Or whatever. Maybe one of those mini-barns that you can purchase for storage. That could work.

I also find these rooms inspirational.

In fact, I am smitten with this sink.

Either in the double (above) or single (below) versions. And open shelving, oh how I love open shelving. I know it's messy-especially in a kitchen, but just look at it! *sigh*

This bed? I want it in my life. In a queen, possibly painted red. I'm downgrading...I'm selling most of my furniture which includes my enormous king-sized bed that is way too big for just me.

And this lamp?

Yes, please. Do you think I'll ever have a house big enough for both a library and a craft room?

Speaking of craft rooms, I'll take two of these

and one of these.

Oh and I'll get (have?) several kids so I can decorate their rooms.

Sometimes I'm seduced in IKEA to believing that I'm a modern girl. I'm not a modern girl. I like and appreciate modern decor, but I'm more of a casual, contemporary, country, vintage, kitschy, quirky kind of person. This lamp however, I have no appreciation for, it's ugly and looks like a hanging pillow.

In my future house, where I have both a library and a craft room, I'm also going to have a porch where I can hang this and sit under the candlelight and chat with friends and neighbors.

When you finish up looking at all the good stuff IKEA has to offer, you go into this GIANT warehouse to pick up your furniture.

Everything is labeled throughout the store so you know where to go to find your flat packaged boxes of wonder. They do make travel easier and apparently help costs because shipping is cheaper with the flat boxes. That also means you'd better be ready to put your furniture together. Pros and cons. Of course the one thing I wanted from this section (a stool) was gone. Sold out. I tried my luck in the as-is section.

No luck. ) : I had a not-so-tragic stool accident last week and was looking for something a little sturdier, so I can get above what I'm taking a picture of in the kitchen. Oh, well.

So if I took this two hour trip to Charolotte, what'd I get? Let's look in my bag of wonder:

Everything fit in one bag...IKEA is "bagless" so you have to purchase or bring your own. I purchased.

A utensil caddy, I have smaller one that matches this but I like to keep my wooden utensils separate from my metal ones. Anal retentive? Yes.

These plates. The whole purpose of going to IKEA was to exchange some plates that I purchased last summer. These in slate grey/blue. I forgot the plates and grabbed these that are the same shape but in cream. I'm all about the mix and match.

These candle holders that I'm not going to use as candle holders. I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

FABRIC!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

In the kids section they had several options of fabric that was packaged like this:

I had no idea how much it was but at $7.99, I got two.

Hearts.

Hippopotamuseseses. Hippopotami?
They ended up being about 3-4 yards of fabric which is a pretty sweet deal. Now, to get creative!

I also grabbed 4 of the big IKEA bags for $0.59 each. I'm thinking about doing a project for Matt's birthday (a request for a fishing-equipment holding bag thing) out of these. Waterproof, sturdy, CHEAP fabric? What do you think? Too blue?

And that was my trip to IKEA in Charolotte.