Monday, March 05, 2007

Kryptonite

In case anyone has missed it, right now my life is insane. I just moved, and I am directing a play, and I have this pesky full-time job. Nearly everything I own is in boxes, the only place in my house that has any semblance of normalcy is my living room, and I have exactly 7 outfits unpacked that I can rotate to wear to school. So, when I have a day off, of course I spend it unpacking and organizing, right?

Wrong. Being me, I go to Ikea, 3 hours away.

Ikea gets mixed reviews -- some people hate it and think it is all absolute junk, some people could not care one way or another, and some people -- like me -- love it and could live there forever. Yes, their stuff is trendy and cheap, but I am way too fickle to spend thousands of dollars on furniture, knowing I will get tired of it in six months and start to hate it in a year. I have heard people say that they want to invest in quality pieces they can pass to their children, but let's face it, it's that kind of attitude that created the plague of hideous brown and orange plaid couches currently inhabiting half college apartments and dorm rooms in the country. Who am I to assume that my children (theoretical) will have the same taste as me? Goodness knows, my mother and I could not possibly be more disparate in our decorating choices, and the few pieces of furniture I got from her turned out...well, we'll just say things got unpleasant, and leave it at that. Which brings me back to Ikea, a Swedish wonderland of trendy furnishings for those of us not interested in leaving some sort of furniture legacy, other than perhaps to donate our used stuff to replace those ugly plaid couches.
One is best served to take a large vehicle to Ikea, because even though the furniture is flat-packed, come of it can be pretty big. But since this was a spur-of-the-moment trip, and I was more interested in preliminary looking than actual buying, I took the teeny tiny Tercel. I ended up doing a bit more buying than I originally intended, but it was mostly textiles, so everything fit nicely. I'll try to post some pictures later this week once I have everything up -- or maybe next month -- summer for sure.

1 comment:

Holli said...

Erin!! We are of one mind-at least with the whole IKEA thing. I seriuosly could have written this post myself (except for the whole play and full-time job thingy, excuse me while I go have a cry...)anyway, I have never understood those people who have absolutely no use for IKEA. Even my Mom who is not modern in her decorating was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of furniture, textiles, etc. that she loved when she actually went into the store! I too, change my mind WAY to often to buy anything with a significant price tag because I will only end up keeping it out of guilt in the long run. I should post some pics of our awesome bedroom furniture i bought a month ago. I was waiting for so long to get the white HEMNES dresser and now it's mine..all mine! My friend and I took her husband's Ford F150 down and packed that mother full-it was a beautiful day. well, this comment is way to long, but I just can't help it IKEA turns me on! :)