In Defense of IKEA

Chris keeps suggesting that it's time to break up with IKEA but I just can't manage to cut it out of my life. The catalogs get me every damn time with their styling, creative use of vertical space and incredibly reasonable prices. I mean, who can argue with $0.49 cotton muslin tea towels?

I agree with Chris that a house full of IKEA screams "university living", but when mixed with higher quality, classic pieces no one will ever know that the shelf in your living room was assembled in 15 minutes with nothing more than an Allen key. You also can't compete with IKEA for storage pieces, bath towels, fun linens, frames and candles. That frame department is off the hook.

There are two reasons that I am thinking about IKEA right now. The first is that I need to do something about the toy storage in Eloise's room immediately. And by something, I mean corral, it's a disaster. Since I don't want to spend more than $50 I figured the EXPEDIT would be a good pick and I had an 'aha' moment when I realized the top looked to be just about the right size for a change table pad (it is). Once Eloise has a sibling to share her room with I can simply add legs for a double duty toy and change station. Perfect.

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I really love these rugby stripe fabric bins from The Container Store for toy storage. They're the just right size for the EXPEDIT cubes, have rope handles for easy access and even ship to Canada. Unfortunately they wanted to charge me $45 for shipping. Well it looks like I don't like these bins that much.

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This monogrammable (!) felt storage bin from West Elm is pretty cool too.

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I also like the idea of a simple wire basket so that Eloise can see where her toys are and learn to put them back in the right spot. My Mom suggested toys may just fall through, so maybe not a great choice for small parts.

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The other reason I have IKEA on the brain is that I am totally obsessed with the idea of open shelving in the kitchen. Chris and my mom both tried to persuade me to install shelves when our kitchen was renovated two years ago but I resisted. I wanted nothing but art on the walls. Now I am positive it has to be done and honestly, I can't think of anywhere else besides IKEA you can you buy floating shelving? A look at the images below and I'd guess that all three projects used IKEA LACK wall shelves.

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