Things started off innocently enough. The occasional trip through the store; a behomoth of a warehouse, gripping tightly to my mother's arm as she flipped oversized tags to reveal a price of $8.99 for four pillows. I don't recall the first purchases but I do recall the swedish meatballs and how after each walk through my brother and I would be rewarded with a cinnamon roll. Thinking of it now I laugh in hindsight over my excitement for the famed cinnamon rolls, because now a 'treat' after successfully walking through an Ikea on a Saturday afternoon without beating someone with a FIGGJO mirror and/or running over a seven year old with my cart is to have a frozen yogurt. Anyway, that's how my addiction to cheap swedish furniture began, as all addictions do; sporadic usage and then a full blown need to stare longingly at the glossy pages of the catalouge and purchasing all the $1.99 pink hangers I could get my hands on.
It's not that I have brand loyalty or keen eye for home style but when I was asked recently about how one should decorate their first! place! my answer was a succint "Ikea. The end." Then I half expected dollar bills to fall out of the sky for passing along that information; "Awww yeah" I thought while nodding "Mama's gonna get herself a SNILE chair and some INREDA bookends". Though now I suppose I could throw in a Target for good measure though with less enthusiasm because it seems I ENJOY putting together my furniture with the most complicated instructions possible because then I get cool textiles for $0.39 to boot. But back in my day the only option for furniture that was passable for something you might want to sit on without risking a stray bar to the bum but cheap enough that you wouldn't be making choices between a bed and being able to eat, well those options were fairly limited.
My first apartment was an 850 square foot studio. That I shared. With another human being. And all of her belongings. And without any sort of wall or anything. Just a whole lot of open space and subsequent ill will. If you ever have to share a studio, don't forget to build a brick wall or at least a shower curtain. There are times when looking back upon that time, which was only five years ago and I marvel at the way I managed to a) not commit any rash acts that might put me in jail and b) have a furnished apartment with cutlery and matching wine glasses and all without losing my lunch over the pricetag. You want to know how? IKEA. THE END.
Publicly displaying my love of cheap furnishings and the act of spending hours putting together a chair with 98 screws and an allen key, really couldn't come at a better time. You see it's spring. The time of renewal and also the time of college graduation. Right now is the perfect time for parents and their 21-22 year old offspring to have a little 'Come to Jesus' discussion about how the child will have NO MONEY. And while having NO MONEY the child will have to live somewhere and the child can sleep on the floor if it so chooses but it would be better off sleeping on an actual bed or futon as that would lessen the chances of back injuries and people with no health insurance can't really afford to have an orthopeodic injury.
When I first moved, I surveyed my space and found that the most heartening part of the whole new found utter FREEDOM thing is being able to decorate my space with my money. 'Designing' is the first of many awesome things that occur when becoming your own person with your own things. Whether that be an entire apartment or half of a studio. It's a space to do with what you will while ignoring the whole NO MONEY aspect. The point is this is the first time to be able to do it up in a space entirely your own which doesn't mean spending all the money that you don't have but using what you have as a budget guide to find things that are functional but also fun (see: POLARVIDE throw). Use professional design sites to do the guiding. See what you enjoy and then emulate for half the price. I hate boring spaces which is why my current walls are turquoise but I also like to make the little space I do have while being cheap (My motto seems to be spend a lot on shoes but spend little on the thing you sleep on every night. Becoming my own person doesn't mean that things have to make sense).
It isn't as if IKEA will cure all that ails you and causes tulips to rise in your wake it's just that it's cheap - fine inexpensive - and rarely boring which is the key to all things that one considers doing when between the ages of 18 and 25. Sure we might enjoy thumbing through the pages of Pottery Barn and it might be just lovely to own a couch that you didn't have to hog tie to the top of your hatchback, carry up four flights of stairs, then put together yourself only leaving bloody nubs for fingers but! It is a right of passage, buying items for your first home away from your parents (even if your parents may or may not be paying for said apartment) (ahem). That freeing feeling of knowing that yes! You are in fact perfectly capable of picking out bedding and a mattress and the perfect walk clock and desk/bookshelf combo. Just remember that you can do this crazy thing called SAVE (you know once you get yourself hooked up with a job and money) and one day live a life where someone else might deliver your mahogoney furniture already assembled thereby greatly diminishing the risk of needing anger management while putting together furniture.
Suddenly I see my future and it is bright and does not involve carpal tunnel courtesy of the world's smallest wrench or ugly carpets.
Great furniture sites:
Fosters (I bought some amazing stuff there this weekend)
And design Sites for inspiration:
Design*Sponge (Grace has a link to great finds for less than $100)
Heather B. also blogs at No Pasa Nada. She is currently sitting on her MALM bed staring at her REDO wall clock.
