I have finally discovered for myself the wonder that is Ikea.
When Kevin and I lived in Beijing, people were always squealing about the cute stuff they had seen or bought at Ikea: furniture, cups, napkins, pillows, you name it. Beijing even had a knock-off Ikea (actually Ieka), so you know it was pretty awesome if it was worth knocking off.
And a few weeks ago, Utah got its first Ikea. I went visiting teaching last month to my friend Lonnie's house. She said we could come, but we had to make it quick because she had something going on that night. Turns out she was planning to camp out in front of Ikea the night before the grand opening. She was so excited!
Then a couple weeks ago, Kevin's mom came and stayed with me for a while, and we planned on going to Ikea to check it out and buy some kitchen chairs (all we had were random, unmatching folding chairs and rickety old wooden chairs). But while she was here, we didn't have an opportunity to go. Before she left, she gave me some money for me to go buy chairs at Ikea.
So last night I went.
And it was pretty much cool. I tried all the chairs and discovered that the cheapest ones were just as comfortable as the ones 3x as expensive, and way more comfortable than the cute ones I almost bought. So I bought 6 of the Jokkmokk chairs (which perfectly match the wood in our kitchen cabinets, btw), 6 seat cushions, a rug, a paper lantern, lightbulbs, a cord, some cutting boards (not exciting enough to include pictures), and an old fashioned alarm clock just like in Mickey's Christmas Carol-- all for just $204!
The biggest mistake I made in that store was to go sit in some chairs that I knew I couldn't afford. There was a big cushy leather recliner for like $120 or something. I thought it was really cute, but I had NO IDEA how comfortable it would be!!
But as you can tell from my purchase list, I left the store without it. I may have to go back and visit it sometime soon.