Hi honeys
I'm back as promised with a post to share our trip this past weekend to Ikea. As I've explained before, getting to Ikea is quite difficult for us, so each trip is planned weeks in advance, shopping list is made, time off work booked for both of us, and because of this, as well as the fact that I adore the place :) each trip always feels (to me anyway) like a special treat :)
This visit I thought I'd take along my camera so that I could share with you some of the pretty things I saw and smiles we had. Apologies if my photographs could be better. In my defence the lighting inside Ikea is all artificial. You know I hadn't stopped to consider before, I don't suppose I ever had reason to, but the only area with windows and therefore natural light, is the customer restaurant upstairs.
This does seem odd to me really. Surely if a company wants to show their products at their best, especially items like bedding, tableware and glassware etc, wouldn't they want to have lots of natural light flooding the place? Only a minor niggle really and doesn't detract from my
Well dear ones, take a moment to grab yourselves a cuppa and possibly a biscuit, and we'll begin our mini tour.....
The very first thing I saw when we got out of the lift with our trolley was a room display, staged as a bathroom. Included in this display was this gorgeous, stunning bathtub.....
Isn't it perfect honeys? Everything from the shape to the stunning chrome feet and taps is just.... well perfect! We don't have a bathtub in our teeny tiny bathroom, just a shower, but if we did have room this is one I'd choose :)
The next display that "spoke to me" was this open plan living/dining room display. First is the window treatment of lace and rose patterned curtains.... this couldn't be more me if it jumped up and down yelling "Rosie." What can I say honeys, I'm a roses & lace kinda gal :)
My attention was also drawn to the covers on the dining table chairs. The white cotton covers are so pretty, but I love that the same fabric used to make the curtains has also been used to make bands which are tied around the chair covers.
When looking at the photographs taken in store on Saturday, I found myself mentally de-constructing these chair covers, wondering if I could make them and I'm fairly certain I could. For many years I made all of my own window treatments, including curtains. I love de-constructing things and making my own patterns but as it turns out, Ikea do sell these chair covers already.
I am a huge fan of pretty, gentle pastel colours. You can imagine my joy then on turning the corner to be met by so many lovely pastel shades, as you can see in the image below. Aren't these plant pots/planters lovely? I love the lace patterned upper edge and think they'd be gorgeous used as containers elsewhere than the garden.
In the kitchen used to hold utensils? On a dressing table used to coral make up brushes or to organize tubes of moisturiser or hand creams etc? Maybe in the bathroom to store hair brushes? They really are too pretty to be only used to hold plants :)
Just across from the pretty planters was another display showing how Ikea products could be used in a walk in closet, should any lady be lucky enough to have one. They had a "wall of shoes" using mirrors & shelves to display a dozen pairs of shoes. Goodness! If I were lucky enough to have a closet/dressing room big enough I'd love this! What woman wouldn't?
In the image below they've used a KALLAX unit in the prettiest pink as a dressing room island. The "drawers" on the bottom shelves are actually DRÖNA boxes which I adore. They hold loads and fold flat when not needed. Love them! You might remember there is a lovely blue one currently being used to store throws in our guest room.
The wavy mirrors shown below, which are wall mounted and supplied in packs of two, are called KRABB and hubby suggested they might work if attached to the cupboard doors in our guest room/craft room. It's definitely worth thinking about since the cupboard doors face the large windows in this room and the mirrors would just flood the room with lovely natural light.
I've added them to a shopping list on the Ikea website as a possible future purchase. Measuring would need to be done and if bought they would be a "finishing touch" to a room I'm not nearly done with working on yet. We'll see, if we do decide to go ahead I'll share in a post honeys.
The next item that caught my eye is a chair. Isn't it pretty? I walked past this very simple display - a table, a chair and some pretty flowers - and actually stopped because of this chair. It literally stopped me in my tracks :) I love its simple lines. It's just beautiful.
The chair is named Tobias and in the above photograph is shown in a lovely smokey brown. The Tobias is also available in lilac, grey & clear.
This chair is a perfect example of inspiration versus reality. Where oftentimes I'll see something very beautiful and have to be content with just admiring it because I know it just wouldn't work in our home. Lovely to look at though.
Do you remember I explained recently about the subtle reindeer theme running thorugh our home? If so, you can imagine that this adorable pink deer just leapt right off the display at me :)
It's called Samspelt and definitely belongs in the category of non essential items that don't really serve any purpose other than to make you smile when you see them :) I didn't bring one home this visit but definitely might in the future, when I've de-cluttered our home enough to make room for him :)
Part of the joy, for me, of walking around an Ikea store is the inspiration to be found in their staged "room" displays. One of the rooms we're trying to work on right now in our own home is our guest room which will double as a sewing & craft room for me. You'll understand then why this sewing & craft room display just fascinated me.
There is so much to see in this display. I love the idea of having a large cutting table for fabrics, but we simply don't have room for it in our tiny guest room. There are however ideas I can adopt in my much smaller space. The drawers for accessories for instance. Of course I don't have room for these units, or the sheer volume of them, but we are planning something similar.
Do you remember the closet/cupboard in the guest room/craft room? we do have stackable plastic drawer units which we're planning to re-purpose in this cupboard, sitting them alongside the red metal shelving unit. They'll then be used to store assorted crafting supplies such as paper & card, stickers, threads, and anything else in need of an orderly home.
Alongside the drawer units, facing the desk, in the image below they have a wall mounted mini ironing board. A fabulous idea to have a small ironing board in a sewing room to use while working on seams for example. I also like the metal shelves/hanging rail being used to store bots of fabric. Hubby has already set up a hanging rail with shelf directly above it in the guest/craft room for me (thank you sweetheart x.)
If I had to choose a single Ikea product that I most love and want to own but haven't bought yet it would be this......
It's the wonderful, multi-tasking, can use it in every room RÅSKOG trolley. It's super useful, brilliantly designed, beautiful to look at but I simply can't bring myself to spend £50 on an, albeit super adorable, kitchen trolley. I work part time and £50 is almost a weeks wage for me. Maybe some day it will be on sale, or I'll get a better job :)
After sighing over the RÅSKOG a while, next stop was to the BYGEL range where we stopped to pick up (yet) another rail, three containers & a pack of "S" hooks. We've used this fabulous little system so often in our home organization projects. I love, love, love this system!
We've used them in our kitchen, hallway, guest/craft room and even in our bathroom. I really do adore this system :)
By far one of the prettiest displays we saw this visit was this bedroom display. I would have so loved this pretty pink bed as a child.
I really like the bedding too, it has a roses pattern and I have to check next time if it's available in double size, since the more I look at it, the more I like it :) The RIBBA picture ledge, shown on the wall above the bed, is another great Ikea product that has so many uses. We have a few of them now, with the latest being used in our bedroom to store our ebooks & tablets at night.
Have you ever seen a product that made you smile, but you knew you had absolutely no use for it? This adorable little lunch pail is exactly that kind of item :) It would be perfect for school lunches maybe? No use to us but it was just so cute, and as I said made me smile, so I thought I'd share in the hope that it makes you smile too honeys :)
OK, this next product is definitely something I'm teetering on the edge of a decision about. So much so that I've added it to our online shopping list for next visit to remind myself to think about it again next time :)
It's a very large, very soft area rug that I think would just be the finishing touch to my sewing/craft room. What do you think honeys? I love that it's so bright & colourful. Maybe by the time we next visit the store I'll have finally completely finished the guest room/craft room and if so I may just treat myself to celebrate :)
I just couldn't end this post without sharing these adorable little throw cushions :) I mean seriously honeys, how cute are these?
They take cute to a whole new level, and Hubby said playing air guitar would be more fun with a guitar cushion :)
Goodness this has been a long post, hasn't it? I'm sorry if I've waffled on a bit. I get excited & giddy about homewares & design in the same way that a normal woman does about shoes & accessories :) I do hope you've enjoyed sharing our visit to Ikea with me. Let me know what you think in the comments section below. Are you an Ikea fan too?
I thought I'd leave you with one more image. I took this photo standing in the Ikea car park waiting for Hubby to bring the car around. If you look beyond the Ikea flags you'll see the beautiful Scottish hills in the background, made all the more beautiful by the lovely sunny day we had.
Thank you for keeping me company and from a not-so-sunny-today Scotland dear ones, till next time, huggles always xx
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