We were one of the lucky ones with a golden ticket! We got to go to the St. Louis Ikea this weekend FOUR days before it opened. Our time slot was from 10-2. We got there at 9:30 along with at least 1000 other people. Yikes. They did a fairly good job managing everything and I was pretty impressed. When we got in the store they had a good chunk of employees screaming with excitement when a new batch of people came up the escalator.
A lot of people think it is kind of random that I love Ikea since we are are known for high end furniture and kitchen finishes. But, I love it. I have gone to Chicago several times just for ikea actually! There are things you should get at Ikea and things you shouldn’t obviously.
What shouldn’t you get? Well, most of their furniture is temporary. I think there are situations where this makes sense. Baby furniture sometimes, maybe some storage stuff. Or maybe if you just aren’t ready for anything serious. You can even get REALLY cheap plain pine dressers and jazz them up yourself BUT its not like they will survive a move. So, when I buy furniture from Ikea I think of it as temporary. And yes, I have furniture from Ikea too. Your whole house can’t be amazing statement pieces sometimes you just need a cheap bookshelf right? I am going to show you how to paint Ikea furniture soon!
Kitchens. I have a lot of thoughts on them so I am going to follow up with a separate post on that.
So let me tell you the things I love in Ikea.
When we first walked in we saw this display. All the plants are fake but they look real. If I thought I wouldn’t kill even fake plants I would by them but my friend is out of town a lot so they were perfect for him!
I spotted these 2 cabinets and thought they were cute. They looked metal so durability is probably fine.
Personally, I am obsessed with all their kitchen stuff. Dishes, plates, flour sifters, and stuff like that. I really love their flour sifter.
Someone recognized me carrying 8 glasses and took pity on me and pointed me in the direction of this handy contraption.
Plastic storage containers are crazy expensive in real life. Not at IKEA!
I will be going back for these…they were only $14.
Their candle stuff is super cheap too and they have great under cabinet lighting options. They also have cheap batteries, which I couldn’t find on this trip so I’ll have to go back.
Their food court had at least 32535 people in it and my picture was blurry but you can eat very inexpensively there and they even have daycare!
And you can get fabric there!
We were going to get a $99 ginormous floor length mirror to tide us over until I can convince myself a gaudy $2000 one is worth it. See, IKEA stuff can be smart 🙂 Turns out my friend had the same mirror that he didn’t need anymore so he is just giving it to us. Woo hoo!
I loved these little signs for .99! I am going to go back and get them for my VMD booth for pricing info!
If you have dogs, rugs probably wear faster in your house which makes Ikea rugs a pretty good price. They have A LOT!
Furniture has tags that lead you to a specific spot down stairs to put your pieces on a flat cart. The elevator is the size of NYC apartment.
Once you are all loaded up, you head through the impulse purchases and to the register.
From the register, you can see the little ikea grocery section which also had a line so we skipped.
And at check out, I spotted these easels. I need three so I have to go back. So mad I missed those!
All in all, it was crazy. They already have signs out for the line that will start Monday morning for the Wednesday grand opening. I imagine it will be well managed but still insane.
More importantly we were amazed with the cart design and escalator to the lot. The wheel is designed to prevent from letting the cart slide down. As a former engineer I love this.
And so did Brandt.
Will you be going to Ikea soon? Are you gonna wait for a while?
I got a piece of furniture there that I will be blogging about soon to show you guys how to paint it. Sometimes you just need a cheap piece but doesn’t mean it can’t be awesome. Ikea furniture is a little different to paint so watch out for that info soon!
I got a piece of furniture there that I will be blogging about soon to show you guys how to paint it. Sometimes you just need a cheap piece but doesn’t mean it can’t be awesome. Ikea furniture is a little different to paint so watch out for that info soon!
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