I love Ikea. Let me get that statement out of the way before I start bemoaning my fate at self-assembling furniture. I think their stuff is great – it is cheap and yet sturdy. You can go and buy it today and take it home with you in a normal car, rather than waiting weeks for delivery. And I love their showrooms. There are acres of space devoted to home furnishings. It is like being in Hannah-heaven.
As you will know if you’ve been following my postings, I have recently moved house. From an ickle house into a bigger house. Which is fabulous. But I did have a small problem, in that bigger houses need more furniture. A fairly obvious observation, but one that I may have overlooked slightly!
So, on Sunday, armed with my long-suffering husband, and my mother-in-law we journeyed to Ikea in Southampton. You can’t exactly miss the giant blue and yellow building, and apparently we were not the only people who had decided on a little spot of Sabbath shopping. We found parking on level 4 – the spiral ascendance was getting a wee bit dizzying by that point, and entered what some may describe as Mecca.
Honestly, this place is massive. Huge. Humongous. You can see all the furniture laid out before you, and also made up into mini apartments, so you can suss out their ingenious storage solutions. Love it.
Once we had decided on what we wanted – a coffee table, a side table, three bookcases, two trivets and four seat cushions, we descended to the warehouse floor to pick up our chosen items. We managed to find the correct aisle and locations and then came the work of bundling these items onto a flat-bed trolley. An interesting experience, but nothing in comparison to the job that awaited us once we exited the building. The loading of the car.
I am very pleased that we decided to take my husband’s car. It is a Volvo estate (no, he isn’t really 45 years old – that’s just the impression that the car gives!) It was slightly disconcerting when we put the first bookcase in and a foot of it was still hanging out the back of the car. After a lot of huffing, puffing and moving, we finally managed to get it all packed in. However, you had to be a bit careful when you went round a roundabout. Or a corner. Or even a slight change of direction. As the boxes had a habit of trying to crush you when such manoeuvres were undertaken.
Still, we got it all home, and yesterday I constructed furniture. On my own. With my own hands. It was hot, sweaty work, but I did it. All by myself. Tremendous sense of self satisfaction. I am fairly sure that the six bolts, three screws and five nails that were left over re not that important. Time will tell. If you never hear from me again, I am probably lying underneath my upturned bookcase after realising that those few nuts and bolts may actually have been essential!!
