Furniture

Do any stores these days actually sell furniture? Or has IKEA made it acceptable to build everything yourself?

We are getting ready for the new addition of the family, and are working on getting more organized. Rather than opting for IKEA right out of the gates, we went to Skeidar to shop for a dresser to use in the entry way to keep hats, gloves, keys, etc. orderly. We found the perfect item, and picked it up at the loading dock--- in two flat boxes. It was quite a drawn out process to assemble a dresser. Each drawer needed to be put together, as did the dresser itself. Unlike an IKEA item, this actually came with its own glue. At any rate, it is solid and assembled.

We next needed a closet for Julian's room. I tore out the old closet when I put in the new floor. We checked a holiday sale at Living, but the small "wardrobes" were very poorly constructed. IKEA had them beat in terms of quality, so we spec'ed out what we needed at the "showroom" and headed to warehouse to pick up the boxes. IKEAs own product list was badly mismarked. It took us a bit of discussion to figure out that the list we were given was meaningless. Nonetheless, we found what we needed. We also picked up a storage chest for Julian's toys. Somehow we managed to load everything into our station wagon and drive home--- with the hatch closed. Sure the steering wheel was touching my chest, and I almost needed to phone the fire department to be extracted from the vehicle. But we made it. Our neighbor helped me unload the closet frame-- the box literally weighed 100 pounds.

Assembling the closet went more quickly than assembling the dresser. Of course Julian only wanted to play IN the closet while I was putting it together. Now his room in complete. Well, almost complete. We conveniently omitted installing the handles to the closet door, so as of now, it is childproof.