Nothing Says "Long Weekend" Like a Trip to Ikea

It takes a lot for me to convince Jake that we should go to Ikea. It's not that he doesn't like Ikea... it's just that it's a pretty overwhelming place, I always wind up wanting so many things, and I just walk so slow when we're there (I don't want to miss anything).

In fact, to ensure an Ikea trip, I have to start laying the ground work pretty early. Mentioning at least a couple weeks in advance that we could use this or that from Ikea. And oh, I bet we could find the perfect thing for that project at Ikea. You get the picture.

This time, the project in question was the dining room. And by dining room I mean the 5'x5' section of room designated for a table and chairs (we live in a studio remember?). Somehow, that 5'x5' section had become a catch all for everything extra we had accumulated over the past few months... holiday decorations, party supplies, glassware and Christmas presents without homes. It started out innocently enough. I could cover the table with a tablecloth and count it as extra storage. But then, it grew out of control...

Before

Then, by the grace of God, a storage problem collided with a holiday weekend and there it was... a trip to Ikea. We walked through every display, we marveled over every storage solution and we even ate in their cafeteria. It was a beautiful thing.

In the end, we decided on the narrow Billy Bookcase with a Billy Olsbo Panel/Glass Door. The unit is very standard, but it's all we really need. Every dining room needs some basic storage for the dining items that you don't use on a regular basis... extra plates, pitchers, place mats and glassware. We wanted an affordable solution that we could use in a different room or way once we move. We also wanted to get a couple of good-looking boxes or a small drawer unit for things that still needed to be kept under the table. We decided on a couple of these stacking Prant Magazine Boxes, but they ended up being sold out... so we'll have to go back for them later... oh, shoot.

Once we got home, we set to putting our new cabinet together right away. By "we" I mean mostly Jake. Since we've lived in this tiny place, he's pretty much earned a PhD in assembling furniture in a small space.

While Jake was working, I opened a bottle of wine to celebrate a successful Ikea trip. Drinking wine while assembling furniture is probably not THE BEST idea. In fact, it's probably the reason a couple of panels got put in backwards the first time around.

We're pretty happy with our new unit. It has definitely done it's job clearing up the dining room. We like that the glass/panel door allows us to display some stuff and hide the rest away. It's not perfect, but we're working with what we have as renters and it's a whole lot better than the floor storage we had going on before.

After

Whew, that feels good. I'm pretty excited about some things that are coming up soon on the blog... I'll be doing a follow up on the "Taking Back the Closet" post that features some great outfits assembled by my best friend and stylist, Megan and I'm hoping to get a house tour up for those of you who are wondering what it is like to live in a shoe box! Get stoked!

I'll leave you with this quote from my dear husband, Jake:

"Ikea is like the grown-up form of Legos... except Legos are way cooler."