IKEA makes me happy

Hello there! Hope you’re feeling the heat wave we are here – it’s positively balmy in our house tonight! Crazy! SPRING is on it’s way, and that makes me so happy. I’m excited to start getting my hands in the dirt again!

I’ve been one lucky chick lately – I’ve taken TWO trips to IKEA within the past two weeks. I’ve only been four times, and the first two times were within weeks of each other, just like this time.

They pump addictive-ness into the air in there, really.

There’s just something about IKEA. Before I had been, it was that place that I wanted to visit SO BAD. I’d see posts like this one and wanted to see all the Swedish goodness. And now that I’ve been, it just makes me giddy to go back.

I don’t know what the deal is. Maybe that’s it’s two hours away and I go rarely so it’s a treat. Maybe because it’s HUGE and you never see everything on one trip.

Maybe it’s just that they have some really fun stuff for CHEAP. Hmmm…I’m going with all of the above.

I would venture to say that the Danish Modern IKEA style is a far stretch from the more traditional style in our house. But there’s pieces throughout that would fit into most any home. And did I mention…cheap?

Anyhoo, on the first trip back a couple of weeks ago, I took the Bub with me. Today, my friend Traci from Beneath My Heart and I met up to spend the day together. We were just two crayzay Moms, shopping, eating and drinking sodas. (I gave myself a “soda pass” for the day.) ;)

I LOVE TRACI. I seriously have a major girl crush on her. We dined on Swedish meatballs (I think it’s an IKEA law you must eat them upon entering the store) and chatted our way through the place.

I took some pictures of a few of my favorite finds from both trips to share with you!

This pillow is so Pottery Barn-esque – the floral design is embroidered on the front, the striped fabric is on the back:

So pretty! I think it was $15? Can’t remember for sure. But it’s not a small pillow either – and super soft.

I love the blankets they have throughout the store:

 

We thought this one would make a pretty scarf:

OK. A very large pretty scarf. Very warm though! ;)

Their fabric selection is SO FUN:

Such great colors for a kid’s space or any fun and bright spot! I picked up a little somethin’ somethin’ for the Bub’s room – the perfect finishing touch I’ve been looking for for some time now. Can’t wait to bust out my new sewing machine and get ‘er done. :)

Many of you ask about the sofa table in our kitchen/family room, and this is it:

It’s the Hemnes sofa table and it comes in a brown/black and a beautiful grey color as well.

I love this grey piece as well:

Wouldn’t that be lovely in a kitchen, filled with white serving dishes? Just beautiful!

They have a HUGE selection of affordable chairs: 

I spy one that would work great in my office, but I’m going to try to recover the chair I have first. If it’s a colossal fail, IKEA will be calling my name. :)

One of my next big projects is our master closet. It’s atrocious. Incredibly atrocious. I’m determined to get it organized for good, and when I saw these units, I knew they would be perfect:

Ohhh…I can just see all the organized goodness in my head, and it. will. be. mine.

Their lighting department is one of my favorite parts of the store. This glass lamp is so traditional and pretty:

But they have a selection of the coolest, most magical lighting as well:

I wish I had a funky space to use one in. Maybe the basement someday? That dandelion fixture is calling my name. So cool.

Because both Traci and I luuurve Ballard Designs, we took a quick trip out to their outlet store while we were in town (West Chester, Ohio):

It’s so fun to look through, but that’s what is was mostly – looking. :) The prices were higher than I remember, and still way out of our range.

There were a few decent buys:

That light is looks like a miniature version of my dining room light! So pretty!

We were digging ALL of these fixtures, especially that green glass:

We saw plenty of projects we could attempt on our own though. Traci found a real cutie she’s going to recreate. (It’s adorable!)

We thought this pillow could be an easy knock off, especially if you have a Silhouette machine!:

I’ve been looking for clip on drum shades for our kitchen light fixture forEVER, and when I saw these across the room, I may have knocked a few women out of the way to get to them:

OH MY, they would have been perfect. But even at the even at the outlet, they were $25 smackaroos each. That would be a smooth $125 for what I needed. SO not going to happen.

Anyone seen any clip on drum shades that cost around $25 for all FIVE? :)

There’s a few oddities here and there too – like this monogrammed pillow:

I have a feeling a new bride just realized what her monogram spelled out. Ha! ;)

And this little lady was…uhhh…interesting:

We had a such a fun day! And both of us were so good too – we only found a few little items to take home.

I’ll show you some more of mine soon, but both Traci and I had to pick up this cutie from IKEA:

Only five bucks, and it’s going to look great in our guest room -- when it’s done. Someday. In about ten years. Or so. Around there.

On every lady date I ever go on, we always forget to take a picture together. But at the very last second we remembered to get one:

Uhhh…I think she was trying to kiss me in this one? Maybe.

We tried again and while trying to make our necks look good, we may have stretched a little too much:

This is the best we got, after five tries:

I think Traci’s looking at someone else, but at least we’re both smiling and our necks look good. ;)

This two hour trip to IKEA to hang with one of my best bloggy friends made my whole week! If you haven’t seen dear Traci’s blog, head on over. You’ll love it.

Here’s one of their latest projects, a mudroom redo:

SWOON.

So, have you been to IKEA? Dreaming but never been? What’s your favorite purchase? Anyone have the closet units I’m drooling over?

I say IKEA is “cheap” and that’s may be the wrong term – every single item I’ve purchased (furniture and otherwise) has held up GREAT. What’s your experience been with their products?

May the IKEA force be with you.

P.S. Speaking of Ballard, I’m going to attempt a Ballard knock off this weekend. Seems like it’s going to be an easy one, but we all know what happens when I let those words escape my mouth. We’ll just see. :)