2011 Spring Break - IKEA!!!

For those of you who have never heard of IKEA….Wait. Screech. Hold your horses. Who has never heard of IKEA? Grant it we don’t have one here in Oklahoma which is a good thing because it seems they have some type of cult following, but just south of us in the big ole’ state of Texas, Frisco to be exact sits one big home furnishing store – 310,000 square feet to be exact. So big they have maps at the front of the store, which you might need because it shows you the “shortcuts” in case you need to get back to the ONE bathroom location in the store; which is necessary when shopping with kids or old folk.

If you ever trek down to IKEA and it is your first trip, may I suggest several things?

• Go to the bathroom before entering. Kind of like when you are going on a long car trip, even if you don’t feel like you need to go….go try!
• Pick up a map when you go in, you may need it if you can’t find employees, which by the way are decked out in blue and yellow uniforms, reminding me of Legos.
• Next grab a big blue shopping bag if you want to burn extra calories or a four wheelin’ shopping cart if you want to have fun, trust me you will thank me by the time you get to the first turn.
• Start at the top level because the checkout is on the bottom floor.
• If you have kids that are between 37"to 54" tall, and potty trained you can drop them at Smaland, a playroom with a giant clog shoe and ball pit.
• If you get hungry they have an inexpensive restaurant, I tried their famous Swedish Meatballs with lingonberry jam which were really pretty good and a perfect portion size. Five of us ate meals, drinks and dessert for $25!

Since there are more than 300 stores in over 30 countries and the store is so big, I am surprised that Phil Keoghan and The Amazing Race hasn’t staged a Road Block at one of these locations with the task of putting together some of their streamlined furniture. Actually, I think if they would put together the lamp that we purchased for Darya’s room could be the task that could sever relationships.

The lamp that took some time to assemble.

Let’s take a short commercial break so I can share with you a few things I read on the internet regarding IKEA and since it is on the internet it has to be true, right? *groan*

1. The store wasn’t an immediate success. IKEA floundered in Sweden for thirty years (THIRTY YEARS!) before finding an international audience.
2. It All Started With a Car. The inspiration for IKEA’s design philosophy came when taking the legs off of a chair to fit it into a car. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was so irritated by the experience that he developed the concept of flat pack design.
3. Kamprad is known as a frugal billionaire who drives a ’93 Volvo, eats at middle-class restaurants, and outfits his home entirely in affordable IKEA products, his legacy is tainted by his past involvement with pro-Nazi organizations Kamprad immediately apologized for his involvement and claimed it was the biggest regret of his young life. He also wrote to every Jewish employee on his staff to issue a personal apology. It appears forgiveness has been extended to him.
4. In the 1980’s, the beginnings of IKEA in America, many customers bought vases mistaking them for water glasses.
5. The IKEA catalogue is the company’s main marketing tool. The approximately 300-page catalogue goes out to over 180 million people in 27 different languages to 35 different countries.
6. The recent trend among urban hipsters is to host dinner parties at the stores and then hang out in one of the many decorated display rooms. My kids would rather play a game of hide and go seek.
7. All US stores have rental cars/vans/ trucks available right at the store for your convenience, should you not be able to fit all those streamlined boxes in your vehicle, which I think is way cool!
8. Finally, all the big items you want to purchase you will pick up on the ground floor right before you get to the registers. It is like a big warehouse with numbered aisles and sections.

A really cool cube storage system that we bought for Darya and Jayden's rooms but in black.

Here is a larger version of Darya's lamp, which I love!

However, this lamp was my all time favorite,
I must have it for my reading nook in my bedroom one day.

Penguins!! I love penguins! Jayden took this picture of a picture for me at IKEA.
See even the penguins are rushing to IKEA

Next stop was the Allen Outlet Stores, Hannah wanted to go shopping at Van’s for new shoes. Darryl and Jayden hung out at Nike and after my short trip to the

Kitchen Place

, Darya, Hannah and I finished the day out at Rue 21. Then it started raining so we had to split like cats getting sprayed with a water bottle because we had items stored on top of our Expedition.

           

Almost home! Hannah and her lovely Nerd glasses, which the guy at Chick-Fil-A loved!
See how packed we were? We barely made it.

Next day we went to Lowe's to get the bottom support for Darya's bed.
We opted for this $28 expenditure rather than the $60 expense for IKEA slats.

Cutting lumber is crazy loud! None of us were expecting that!

The final room. So the reason we went to IKEA was to get Darya a new bed,
because we were tired of Goldilocks complaining, "this bed's too small".











Goldilocks is happy and her feet are hanging off the bed no more!