Saturday, June 21, 2014

Ode to Ikea

Recently, Chad and I have been working on making the apartment feel a little more like home. We do have at least 11 more months living here after all. 

That being said, it was time for something new. Chad brought the couch and coffee table we have from his previous move out and, let's be honest, I hate them. Mostly the table. It's ugly and broken.. The couch was ok, just dirty and a bit small for us. 


Most of our apartment, things that weren't given to us by either parents or grandparents, comes from Ikea. We like it. I like the designs, I like the price.. Dressers, bed side tables, bed, dining room table, couch, tv stand, book shelf, drawers... All from Ikea. 

As I've said, I don't like the current sofa or coffee table and I've been wanting to go look at new pieces for a while now. Chad finally caved. We went in with 2 different ideas. 
Chad was thinking we would look and maybe decide which ones we liked and maybe come back for them. 
I was thinking we would go find the one and bring it home. 

I win. 

If you've never been to Ikea, you should get out from under your rock, it's great. Even if you have absolutely no interest in the furniture, or no interest in buying it, it's no less awesome in there. I really like to play house in all the different rooms. I particularly like to play office. Imagine what the rest of the house would look like, imagine what my future house will look like. Honestly, it's a great time. And beyond furniture they have everything to decorate and make the space useful, and meatballs.... Don't leave out the meatball stop. 

Anyway, when we got there the search was immediately on. It turns out now that the very first couch we sat on was the winner. I'm loving it. I can lay on it and have extra room! It's a nice blue-toned grey with white and dark grey running through it. We also considered a dark brown-grey and a red one but they didn't seem quite right. 


Next, we got around to looking for a coffee table. I actually don't want one though. Our space is quite small and I like the in between (tv and sofa) space to be open. I've decided I want a couch table instead. Having it behind the couch keeps the open space, still gives us storage and somewhere to put drinks.. Best of all worlds. 
We didn't end up buying one, but we will. Soon. 

We also needed to get some legs. Mine are a bit stumpy. 
Just kidding.. Mostly. 
We have a desk that's been living in a box for almost a year now. For some bizzare reason, you buy the desk top and the legs all seperatly. And for an even more bizzare (and unknown) reason Chad didn't buy legs when he bought the top. 
So, we bought legs for it. Some nice red stems. 

And my sewing machine gets a home now! Finally!!!

Lastly, we needed a drying rack for the hordes of clothes I own that don't go in the dryer.  I've been wanting one for a million years now. 
I'm a happy laundry do-er these days. 

Now, even though the shopping is over and the furniture all came home with us in the truck, the adventure isn't over. 
Chad had to go to work and I was left to assemble everything. He had enough time to move the old couch upstairs though. Of course, I had to make a massive stuff movement so it would fit up there. 

The disaster area ^^

With the old couch in its new home, stuff EVERYWHERE and my screwdriver in hand, I'm ready to assemble the desk and give it some legs. Cut open the boxes, try to use the ridiculous pictionary instructions and bam! new furniture. Only took about 70 minutes.. 
I only did one part wrong.. Fortunately I noticed right away or it could have taken a lot longer. 


Next up. The couch. Significantly easier than the desk, but still took an hour. Both builds are meant to be done with 2 people, but I'm too impatient for that. 

And that's that. New stuff. Dani the builder. Sore back. Ridiculous amounts of cardboard boxes to recycle. 
Time well spent. 

You know you want to go to Ikea now!
Do it!
xoxo



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