Ikea is one of the biggest furniture brands in the world and to be honest, in the Uk is one of the biggest brands, the Swedish company has a big following not just for the quality of products, but their showrooms and food, for people who live near the shops they can be a morning/afternoon out with a thorough look, food, and just general shopping look around.
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In our early years
We got on the Ikea bug very early in the UK era, as we turned into the 2000s its safe to say that Ikea grew from strength to strength in major markets like UK, and with the internet and social media this expanded this far more, and Boo and I were there right for it.
Ever since we got our first home apartment, we had to maximize space and cost and this, in a nutshell, is Ikea, but in the early days we were doing far more research comparing Ikea with the likes of Argos etc, ill be honest we were never blessed with lots of money and we are both planners/organizes/ budgeters… so this became the norm. However, as the years went on we began to favor the furniture options that Ikea used.
Two of the big things to know about Ikea if you haven’t ever shopped there is, almost everything is flat packed and generally easy to build, but also many of the basics of the furniture don’t change, they have had tweaks and the odd name change but much of the favourites have stayed the same, and the attachments generally always fit and stay around, this allowed them to find their best items.
But for customers it’s mean its easier to shop, you can see the tweaks but you also what to expect from the items, if you see them in the showroom that’s what they are, nothing extra but nothing less, the ability to fully customize so much is a massive help for planning and design your home and we were no different.
Some Kids Furniture
Now as I said earlier, the years went by we started to find ourselves far more with Ikea furniture, and over those years as the house grew and the family got bigger we began to fill the house every year. We would budget ourselves yearly and start making, al ist of things we needed.
We couldn’t do the whole house and as you would expect over the years you tend to tweak and change opinions so it was easier to chip away over years not just one big hit, with 3 kids the bedrooms and their furniture ofcorse was one of the big things and like the rest of the house, gettings thing to fit and making the most of spaces.
we would measure and map put what we needed, but the great thing is the ability to utilize the furniture layout but add or change the fronts or interior, which is a massive deal for different kids of different ages, more space for games or clothes or toys, let alone different color doors and handles etc.
But it didn’t just apply to kids furniture, Kallax, for example, has been a stead in our house and used in many rooms and different ways, the same for Billy or Besta furniture that gets utilized in different rooms, we have them as displays and storage, again because of there basics with a simple carcass and you add what you want, this is great for ever-changing family lol.
I’ll be honest there are a couple of things we haven’t really ever looked at, Sofas Mattress, we have had chairs but these are more offices type and with Beds, we have had frames like Hemnes, but we felt the Sofa and Mattress wasn’t that level we wanted, we tried many in the showrooms but not quite right for us.
Just the Furniture?
I think for many, Ikea can be an experience and something very different, we are not alone in that, even for us we would plan a day out, partly because for us the closest store was 2 hours away, but also the size and thorough thought process we would do would add tot he experience, let’s be honest if you have been around the building you are probably amazed by the size and amount, and we were, certainly the first few times we went there, and for us even now it’s still something we look forward to, Boo and I try to get there every year and its often a great day out.
