Hooray! The new IKEA Catalogue is here!

Oh, I love them. Now I gotta go grab the mail. Yay!

PS Most of our furniture is from IKEA. The desk (it's actually an old dining table) I am typing on is an IKEA special, as is the other (real) desk and the big book case and the printer stand in this room alone.

I'm becoming an IKEA addict. I have several pieces of furniture from there.

They've just doubled the size of the Houston store. Big grand opening and lots of publicity earlier this month. I thought the store was big before.

You ever tried the food in the Sweden Store? I buy there frequently, only so that I can have my chips and food from back home here in Germany!

I'm still waiting for them to open one in New England. There was talk for a while but it never came to anything. So I have to go to Long Island to get my fix.

I love the Ikea restaurant!


I bought a fair bit of Ikea shelving about 20+ years ago. Not so much lately, though the wicker porch chairs I got last year are from Ikea.

I was pretty happy to get the new catalogue about a month ago. Got to watch for those special weekly coupon specials in the back of the book.

I adore IKEA.

I had 'em pegged as interesting design but shabby until I had to furnish my office in L.A. (8 staff, ~25 full-time students, about 50 clients at a time, 3 classrooms, reception area, my office slash conference room, cafeteria area) on an absolutely tiny budget. I went to IKEA about a zillion times, haunted the "as is" dept especially. I love love love can I say LOVE how they have the desktops and legs separately, and the desktops often are in as-is.

So I got a bunch of desktops for like $5 each, perfect condition, all matching, plus computer desks for classrooms, plus big desks for staff, plus waiting chairs for reception area, plus friggin live palms for the reception area and frames and posters and... all for the cost of TWO metal desks in the regular office supply catalogue. The place looked fantastic. (I'll have to post a picture sometime.)

So that was the beginning of my conversion. Then bought an armchair for about a quarter of what it would cost at a local furniture store -- still have it, still going strong. Then got almost all of the sozlet's stuff for her room there. One of my favorite IKEA things ever are these plastic stacking storage boxes which fit perfectly in the bookshelves we have (also from IKEA.) They cost 95 cents each (!) and we use 'em for everything. In sozlet's play area now, one for legos, one for art supplies, etc.

This house is significantly larger than our old house, and before we moved I did a shopping spree since there isn't an IKEA around here and I knew I wouldn't be able to find better prices anywhere. It's allowed us to move in and really use the house immediately. Some of the things I got (each under $150) included a few oriential rugs, (gorgeous!) another armchair, and a storage ottoman that's perfect for the family room (extra seating, ottoman, + storage).

Part of what I love though is that not only is it cheap and useful but some of the designs totally rock. (Tried to find a picture of what I had in mind online as it's too hard to describe but couldn't.)

ANYWAY!

I love IKEA. :-)

By the way, does anyone have any problems with the assembly directions? I've always found them really straightforward (which is good, since I assembled [with help from my staff] the entire office described above), but a friend of mine said she hated IKEA because of the directions and I just saw something in the paper about something being "almost as complicated as an IKEA diagram" or something.

I never had a problem with the instructions. But some folks don't understand diagrams and do better with instructions written out, so it must be nightmarish for them to have no words to rely on.

Jespah--
An IKEA just opened in Milford, CT (not quite Boston, but maybe closer to you than Long Island?).
Traffic has been lined up for blocks around the store, but it will hopefully settle down once the newness wears off. (I haven't shopped there yet.)

Ha - got it already a week ago,

And since we have three IKEA stores within a 3/4 hour drive ..... I fear the worst. (Actually, I must go there coming Friday for the first time again ...)

Oooh!

I'm hoping they'll get here soon.

I found the thing I was talking about but I haven't figured out yet how to get properties with my Mac. (Anyone know?)

So, if you're actually curious, do a search for "fangst". We have the red one. It's so useful. (Stuffed animal storage in sozlet's room.)

http://www.ikea-usa.com

Am I the only one who has the feeling bigdice67 works for Ikea? :wink:

BTW, we have an IKEA around the corner - less than five minutes from here (what am I saying, two minutes!)

(I must admit: after more than 30 years with IKEA, we are going now to buy other stuff as well - more the other site of the spectrum: handmade and/or antique :wink: )

Yeah, I know what you mean, Walter. We have a big mixture. I find the non-wood stuff (upholstered chairs, rugs) mixes better with antiques. But we've just got a whole mess o' stuff, and we're poor enough that the thought of being able to actually afford an oriental rug is still heady.

We bought a dresser from Ikea, and the bottoms of the drawers are so cheap/thin that when you load them with clothes, they bend and pop out of their slots at the back, and thus won't close.

Crap in, crap out, or, cheap is as cheap does.

When did you buy it, Roger? I've found that the quality has been much better in the last 10 yrs (?) or so.

They definitely have ultra-cheap stuff that's pretty flimsy, though.

yup, cjhsa.
you definitely need to be aware of what you're getting - there and everywhere.

if it's got particle-board, or that weird heavy cardboard with a picture of wood printed on it, you want to avoid it.

Why did I say "Roger"? :-? I've been going that a lot today -- whole-word typos.

cjhsa, I meant.