Furniture Shopping in Ikea

 Having recently decided to end our World travels and settle down again, we bought a house. 

A house which needed furniture. So, once again we went shopping, for furniture. 

The last time we purchased furniture was over 10 years ago, for our home in the South of France.

When we went furniture shopping for our last home, we purchased absolutely everything, and anything we fancied.

There was no expense spared as we searched for and purchased lots of products from various brands including, Bugatti, Stokke, Philippe Starck, Kartell, Alessi, and Steiner.  

This time our budget was much smaller. This time furniture shooping was not fun, it was perfunctory, it was a chore to get over with as soon as possible, we wanted basic, cheap stuff. 

So we chose to get what we needed at Ikea. No more 'designer' pieces for us. 

Actually I seriously dislike the word designer in reference to expensive items, mainly because it's nonsense. Technically everything is 'designer', even a manhole cover, as it has been designed by a someone. 

Anyway, back to our furniture shopping experience. 

No more 'designer' goods for us. We didn't get to explore shops full of lovely, shiny, high-end items. 

This time we kept it real and went to hell, aka Ikea. ;) 

I am joking, sort of, I don't really have anything against Ikea, per se. Although after recently reading that the founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad is worth more than 50 billion quid, I did feel that maybe he didn't need my hard earned shekels. ;) :o

But as we are now living a completely different life to our old life in France, small, cheap 'n cheerful furniture is adequate. 

We chose Ikea mainly because it's a one-stop-shop, you can get everything you need in the one place and not have to schlep around searching for furniture that you don't really like or want anyway. 

We wanted to furnish the house as quickly and cheaply as possible, without stress. Ikea was the best option. 

Before we went to the Gateshead branch of Ikea we'd already chosen the majority of the items we intended to buy by scrolling through their website. The main reason we did this was to ensure we spent as little time in Ikea as possible, as neither of us like shopping of any kind. Well, apart from shopping for luxury goods. Hehe! ;) 

Once in the shop itself it was just a matter of checking that we still liked the look of the things we'd decided on. 

The shop opened at 10am for viewing, 11am for shopping. We arrived early so chose to have breakfast in the restaurant. 

Eating breakfast was the best part of our trip to Ikea, not because the food was particularly good, but because it meant we weren't shopping for flat pack furniture. ;) 

Ikea shopping was nowhere near as pleasurable as the shopping we did for our French house. But we gritted our teeth and got on with it. 

The products we'd chosen from the website were fine in the flesh, so we found an assistant who typed everything in to a computer, and then handed us a shopping list to take to the check-out for payment. 

We may not have enjoyed our shopping experience in Ikea, but at least we'd furnished our new house for a lot less than our old house, about £70k less. Ridiculous! 

Despite not having to look for a sofa, kitchen units, wardrobe, tables, chairs etc. we were in Ikea for a couple of hours. No idea why? :(

We were both very pleased once we'd paid for our stuff and eager to get outside to the fresh air. 

Furniture ordered, and paid for, it was just a matter of waiting a couple of weeks for delivery. 

As soon as we received our Ikea furniture, minus the sofa, (which had been put on the wrong delivery truck) I got busy assembling it all. 

I actually quite enjoy self assembly furniture. It's good seeing flat pack turn in to something you can lay down on, which is always appreciated after time spent screwing.......... 

Rather than hinder me, OCD actually helped me for once, as the first thing I did for every piece of furniture was to set out all of the screws, dowels etc. in neat little lines. This definitely made assembling the furniture easier and quicker. 

Mr.R wasn't idle while I worked away churning out the fully assembled pieces of furniture, he was busy cooking, and doing various other things. 

I'm not a fast worker, I'm more suited to being a shirker ;) but with an Allen Key in one hand and a screwdriver in the other, it wasn't too long before I'd assembled all of our new Ikea furniture. 

I probably could have assembled everything much quicker, but I kept stopping to take photos and shoot a few videos. 

If there's no photographic evidence, it didn't happen. ;) :o

Disclaimer ~ In the end I chose not to add photos of most of the furniture simply because it's not that interesting, and everyone knows what Ikea stuff looks like anyway. I uploaded the random shots I took of screws, Allen keys etc. Yep, I know, it's exciting stuff. :o 

Also we recently got a new dog, and he prefers my attention to be on him not my gadgets, which explains why the photos are not all the same size etc. 

It's the dogs fault, he didn't eat my homework, but he is more fun than editing photos. ;) :)

What's your opinion of Ikea, if you have one. 

Do you love, or loathe it?