My ENTIRE HOUSE is just over 1000 square feet. I have friends in the Heights who have less than 800 square feet for their entire home counting closet space and bathroom. The really small spaces are ideal for dorm rooms and maybe 550 is smaller than most homes, but put yourself in the shoes of so many who are choosing to move into town and buying homes that are well under 2000 square feet and don't have vaulted celiengs. Can you imagine trying to put a sectional from Gallery or a china cabinet from Finger's into a house where the room sizes average less than 200 square feet or less? We literally have very few choices when it comes to furniture because everything is built for McMansion-style homes.
Eurway here in Austin is pretty good and cheap, if you like the modern, Euro/Scandinavian style. In size, it is tiny, tiny... next to Ikea. Don't know if they have those in H-town.
Yes, and a lot of the design shows that need to stay within a certain budget (Design on a Dime, Trading Spaces) buy tons of stuff from Ikea as do the people from Queer Eye. It is a popular store with designers because it is modern stuff at a low price.
I'll have to remember that. Want shooting lessons, call VDP...need help putting together your IKEA furniture, call VDP. Anything else you can help me out with?
Personally, since I found Sauder, I haven't shopped anywhere else. A great place to buy stuff cheap if you don't mind putting it together. I find building things fun, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment. And you can shop and buy online, and they ship it to you. Nuts to going into a store at all. www.sauder.com
I went to IKEA a couple of weeks ago to buy a desk, and perhaps a bed. We bought a desk for a relative of mine and it was crap. I mean, it seemed so sturdy in the store but when it was built at the house it was so loose. It did end up breaking in the bottom part too. I was not going to buy one of those for myself. I ended up looking at desks at Office Depot, and then Walmart. I bought a desk from Walmart for $90, and it's a nice sturdy BIG corner desk. I never knew Walmart had decent cheap furniture like that. I don't shop there very often.
This weekend at IKEA was freaking insane. I went there to get a mirror and a few frames, but ended up spending about 1 1/2 hours there...... Personally I like the stuff there. Over the past 5 years or so, Ive bought some lighting, wall art, a few tables, some kitchen stuff, towels, and a dresser. Its good if you are on a budget and favor the mod look. And where did they get all the new parking? The only think I saw that was new were the loading docks on the side which are helpful to peeps loading up all the flat boxes of stuff. Did they tear the old one down?
When we lived in Houston we practically had an Ikea show room. It is what it is...functional, cheap and pretty stylish. Much of the furniture is still particle board and is not made to last, though. I have been slowly replacing the Ikea stuff with well-built wooden furniture. I found a local furniture maker who makes quality pieces that don't look like the hulking monstrosities that Jeff was talking about. Ikea still provides a lot of bang for the buck and I can't wait to check out the new Ikea of doom when I come back to visit at Christmas.
Who's the dealer? I'm only 23, and all the wood furniture I find kind of cramps my style. I want quality, yet with a more modern look than some crap my grandma would want.
I just got back from Ikea this afternoon and wanted to add my complaint. I generally don't mind Ikea, they have great prices on certain types of items. I'm not much of a shopper when it comes to clothing but with household stuff I've probably gotten to know a good number of the affordable options in Houston. Anyway, I went in looking for two simple items (picture frames and blinds) but the sizes were just a little off for both of them. So I thought I'd look for one small item I thought they carried near the furniture. Couldn't find it in the furniture area and had to go all the way back through the store and upstairs to see if they had it in one of their bins up there. They didn't. It's downstairs in the furniture area. But going throught the kid section reminded me that I should go ahead and pick up a mattress for the crib ($25 - is there a better deal elsewhere?! Or will I regret the quality? Or will I never really find out since I'm too big to try it out and the baby won't know or be able to tell me if she did?) So, back downstairs. I find the mattress and the item but the price is 50% more than the display says it is. I ask the salesperson about this discrepency and he says I need to check the display again. I told him that was too far and he says, "Yeah, they got you there too, huh?" WHAT??? But it was a cheap item and I bought it anyway. Any other store and this experience wouldn't have meant walking around for forty-five minutes. This Ikea doesn't have EVERYTHING Ikea has to offer but rather than make the store any bigger it would be best to pick up their catalogue and order what you want.
Unfortunately, I live in New Zealand, so it would probably be a bit rough on the budget to get the furniture to your house.
I was at IKEA yesterday afternoon with my mom and my sister and her future roommate... We had to park on that patch of dirt pretending to be a parking lot, right next to the restaraunt! I could have had a party of 15 people and gotten out of that restaraunt quicker than I would have at IKEA. My sister and her roomie spent an hour and a half in the second floor alone!!! But of course, we had to hike through the entirety of the store before we could get out. My arthritis was acting up, and by the time I got out of there, I could barely walk, and then it was a 15 minute walk back to the car, during which, I almost broke my leg thrice. Did anyone else notice the GIANT slab of concrete they had between the store and the feeder that WASN't used for parking??? WTF!
