I-KEY-YAH

Monday July 2, 2007 | 0 comments

Husband and I are in the process of purchasing our very first home. I am living out the lovely “biting off more than you can chew” quote as I type. I knew buying a home was no picnic, but I had no idea just how stressful it can become (on a scale from 1 to 10, my stress level is about one hundred thousand fifty five million). I’ll spare you the details but will ask that you pray for us.

This Saturday husband and I decided to drive around our future neighborhood and visit Ikea, which is located a mere five miles from our future residence (go us!). Ok, so maybe I did all the deciding, but husband did agree to come along after my convincing speech on our desperate need of bookshelves. Or, maybe he suffered a moment of temporary insanity. I’d like to think my speech was pretty darn good. Who knows?

I must admit the experience was very reminiscent of home for me. The big blue warehouse, the cheap food, lack of windows and natural light…I could have sworn I was back home shopping with my parents. One thing was different—the number of people swarming around affordable, practical, chic European idea of furniture. I personally loved it. It’s like Toys R Us for big people. Though, I think next time I want to go on a weekday, really early in the morning, to beat the rush.

I was a bit puzzled by one thing—what is it that Americans find so attractive about Ikea in general and its furniture in particular? I can understand the European fascination—Ikea’s designs are brilliantly efficient space savers essential to living in small apartments. American apartments, and especially homes, are not designed with Ikea in mind. Here you have closet space and you get more bedrooms than your typical average European apartment.

Back home one room triples as an office, living room and bedroom necessitating clever Ikea designs that save space and multiply storage room. So, I am not sure why it’s become so popular here, granted it is beautiful, practical, and very modern. By the way, we didn’t buy any bookshelves, but that just means that we’ll have to go back.

{ Speak Your Mind }

Commenting has expired.