A VISIT TO IKEA...

My husband, Andrew and I recently visited central Ohio’s newest branch of Ikea which is in Columbus not too far from our Polaris Shopping Center and Tanger Outlet (so really the ideal location). We had planned to have dinner there on our way home, but wasn’t sure if we’d be shopping. However, as we arrived around 4:30pm, it was still a bit early to eat, and Andrew seemed happy to have a browse, so I never say no to that!

I’ve been to many different Ikeas throughout the years and I think my first visit was to the Bristol store in the UK. It goes without saying that almost everyone I know of my generation owns at least one piece of furniture from Ikea. If you don’t, you need to get to a store and pick yourself up a Poang chair ($99). We have two and love them both. They’re comfy and come in lots of different colors (both the pads and the wood frame). Last Christmas I picked up new cushions for one of ours and they’ve been very useful (they’re a dark gray, so doesn’t show stains like the cream colored one did).

What is one of the most fun (and also annoying) parts of visiting Ikea is going room to room, a bit like Herrod’s in London. It’s time-consuming, but kind of fun to imagine yourself living in that space. Now, I’m not someone who desires to own every last thing Ikea sells, preferring to collect pieces from thrift stores and antique shops (and Target if I’m honest) to create my own unique collection. However, if given a chance to spend a night in Ikea, I would absolutely jump at the chance. It’s only too bad none of the plumbing is hooked up because that would make for an absolutely perfect experience.

There’s a scene in one of my favorite movies, “The 500 Days of Summer” where a young couple spend the day at Ikea joking around pretending they live there.

There’s also a book set in an Ikea store called Horrorstör. According to Amazon.com:

“A traditional haunted house story in a thoroughly contemporary setting, Horrorstör comes packaged in the form of a glossy mail order catalog, complete with product illustrations, a home delivery order form, and a map of Orsk’s labyrinthine showroom. It’s “a treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.”—Kirkus Reviews. 

Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland, Ohio. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring bookshelves, shattered Glans water goblets, and smashed Liripip wardrobes. Sales are down, security cameras reveal nothing, and store managers are panicking.
 
To unravel the mystery, three employees volunteer to work a nine-hour dusk-till-dawn shift. In the dead of the night, they’ll patrol the empty showroom floor, investigate strange sights and sounds, and encounter horrors that defy the imagination.”

I think what I like most about some of the spaces, especially this time of year (I seem to go either in the summer or fall), is the coziness of the rooms. As more and more people embrace the whole tiny house movement, maybe this will be the size of rooms in the future. Anyway, as I was walking around I gathered inspiration and hope to try and liven things up a bit around our house (hopefully using some of what we already have to keep the shopping trips to a minimum).

By the way, their signature meatball meal is definitely worth getting. You get like a dozen meatballs, mashed potatoes, a side of veggies, and a scoop of Lingonberries. It’s always quite filling, though we usually power through so we can get dessert. This time we shared a small pink marzipan covered pastry of some sort.