Summer Vacation Day 42: IKEA and Awestruck

Hello, Tim!

It’s IKEA shopping day!

8/11, Saturday

This evening, my uncle took me and my mother to IKEA for furniture shopping, specifically for a desk to put in my study, and a shelf to fit more books in.

The IKEA we went to was visibly large! I would say the exterior of the building has the size of a regular department store, but the whole building, in this case, is for IKEA alone!

The parking was on the underground floor, but when we took the ascending escalator, expecting to start from the first floor, only to find that there was only one path you can take after you got off the escalator: Another escalator towards the second floor. This kept happening until we got to the supposed top floor. That was the moment we walked into the realm of fancy and gorgeous household objects and all the furniture that is designed to make you drool.

The top floor was the best. Upon entrance, you are greeted with a wide path with rooms on both sides. Every room was a unique style of housing design, all featuring the pieces of goods you can find and purchase in IKEA. I think it is a very clever trick played on the customers (including us), for this placement of the items they offer, particularly the large furniture is very different from the traditional furniture stores where they put different furniture in different sections. By putting it the way IKEA did, you could see that it was a clear presentation of how their own brand of stuff, how the furniture of theirs interact with each other. You won’t have to imagine how well this couch would go with that end table, and whether the white shelves with glass door look nice for the light brown wooden floor; you can just see for yourselves. They also have those affordable designs of daily objects or indoors decorations like hooks that can be hanged on walls and those plasma TV-sized photographies of the Eiffel Tower. We all know that the place was designed with a one-way road for the purpose of making you have a look at all the things they offer, but we willingly trekked down the aisle, stopped time after time to marvel at something we would want for our house.

Clean and modern. A whole set of IKEA items.

This is it. This is the place I want to live in. No kidding.

Sleek black design. (And a tired kid whom I don't know at the right bottom)

We soon found a table I want to serve as my desk, a dark one with a sturdy metal structure. Picking out the shelves was a tougher task. There were just too many kinds to choose from! The colors, the material, etc. And given that I already have a bookshelf at home, I also have to think what kind of the second bookshelf I should choose so that it would not look weird when put together with the first shelf. I ended up choosing a dark-colored wooden bookshelf that is under the design name Billy. Now, Billy has the similar color to my current bookshelf, so that it wouldn’t seem weird if you put the two together. Secondly, it has enough space for plenty of books. It has the height, the sturdiness, and the best of all, there are optional doors you can add to it. This is the first among the most important criteria I was looking for in a bookshelf. Doors mean that there is a lower chance for dust gaining on books, reducing the frequency of needing to tend to the books. Having a glass layer on the top half of the door ensures the magnificent view even without opening them, and the wooden part at the bottom makes it look more balanced. This is the one, I said to Billy. See? You don’t even have to think of a name for it; It already has one!

(I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of Billy; Don't worry. We'll have plenty of chance to introduce him in the future.)

This is the innovative transforming lampshade! I loved it!!!

It took us seconds to understand how purchases are made here in IKEA. First, you remember all the IDs of the items you want to buy. Then you go to the first or second floor of the building and collect the items according to their systematic placements. Wagons are provided so you won’t have to worry about not being able to drag your TV stand around. You bring all your boxed goods to the checkout counter, and cha-ching! Your purchase is made. You don’t have a truck of your own to take your things home? Glad to be of service! Take your items downstairs and you will see a counter that handles your delivery needs. See? Nice service!

Every item has its unique ID. 

We started looking for Billy and the table and a chair (for my desk), but we were missing Billy’s doors. I checked with one of the clerks over there, only to find that the doors were out of stock. They don’t have a thing called pre-order, meaning that we either come back when the stocks are refilled, or we pay two times of delivery fee. I brought cookies and the chair to the check-out counter eventually, leaving the other much bulkier things behind (I’ll be back for you, Billy and Table)

We stacked up all these, only to find out we would have to do the same again next time.

This is the story of how we spent almost two hours in IKEA but ended up with only two packs of cookies and a chair. I remember the first time I went to an IKEA restaurant where everything is self-served. It got my eyes opened gapingly wide, and this experience with IKEA, too, showed me a different color of living here, on Earth. (Okay. That was a bit dramatic.)

This is all for today.