My Mind Not Made Up: IKEA & I

Posted 22 April 2007

The IKEA LACK sidetable .... Mine's the coffee table ....

Image taken from: http://www.furniturehomedesign.com/tag/ikea-furniture/

I love IKEA ... Actually, that's an understatement ... There's something about the IKEA store that just fills my heart whenever I visit it ... When I look at all the home displays, you know, the living rooms, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the kitchens and all that, I keep saying, "Yeah, that looks great for my house ... Oooh, oooh, I want that, I want that ..."

Of course, I don't own a house, and because of that, in the past years, all the IKEA furniture I bought I had to give away (GIVE AWAY, okay, because M'sians are a bunch of cheapskates and would rather get things for free) because I had been moving around and moving out of the country ... That's the thing about me - I like to hoard stuff, and I develop a sentimental attachment to them, especially if they are things I really like ... IKEA furniture for example ...

So, after giving away my ANEBODA cabinet, my ROBIN & RAST chests of drawers, I thought, "That's it ... Until I get my own house, I will never buy any IKEA furniture" ... A fool and her words are soon parted ....

Several months after coming back from Japan and settling down at my mother's place, I realized I needed a new bookshelf ... So I went and bought a FLARKE bookshelf ... And then yesterday, I went and bought a FLARKE TV rack and a LACK coffee table ...

Now, one of the reasons I like IKEA furniture so much is because they are so easy to assemble ... For some reason, I always feel a sense of fulfillment after having assembled one ... My first IKEA piece - the RAST chest of drawer - took me more than two hours to assemble, but after I finished, I looked at it proudly and said, "Wow, I actually assembled that all by myself" ...

That's another thing, all these IKEA furniture I've bought I assembled them all by myself ... Well, nearly all of them ... Of course, I did need help when lifting some of them, that ANEBODA cabinet for one, but the main thing is I always assemble them myself ...

So when I bought that TV rack and coffee table, I was thinking, "This is going to be really easy", 'coz mind you, not only that ANEBODA cabinet was tall and heavy, it had hinges, so I had to make sure they were screwed in properly so that the door won't be hanging askew ...

Now, all the IKEA furniture I've assembled had a lot of different types of screws, and each type amounting to a quantity more than four, at least, all except the LACK coffee table ... By far, it is supposed to be the easiest to assemble because it has the least amount of types of screws ... I was dead wrong ... Screwing all the screws in was not that easy ... I wondered if it was because the wood was hard, which was kinda weird because it's lighter than the TV rack ... I even had my nephew to help me on this ('coz he volunteered anyway) ... Then came the part where we had to screw in the legs ... What was supposed to be breezy, became wheezy as it took all my breath to screw those legs in at the proper angle so that the hole in each leg would be adjacent to each other (there is a piece of board to be put under the top) ... Now I got all three legs in, left but the last leg standing ... By this time, my arms were kind of stiff, so you can imagine I woke up this morning with my body aching all over ... I couldn't screw in the last leg, at least to the right angle, so I took it out and tried to unscrew the screw from the leg ... The bloody screw was really fastened in to that bloody piece of wood, so I had to use a plier to take it out ... Needless to say, it was a futile attempt, and I ended up ruining the screw ... SCREW IT!!! ... So this morning, this fine Sunday morning, I drove all the way down to IKEA, all the way on the other side of the town from where I live, just for a bloody screwed-up screw ...

So, is this the end of my love affair for IKEA? ... I can't say for sure, but at least I know I won't be buying any for the time being ... Only because I don't have my own house ... And the reason I got that coffee table is because it's small enough for my room, but big enough for my ultimate buy ... Yes, by next month I will be putting up an entry on that ...

Update

Like I said, a fool and her words are eventually parted ... Many years later, I did a room makeover and bought a couple of new IKEA furniture ...

The white ANEBODA wardrobe on the left and the LAIVA bookshelf in the middle are rather new ... 2014 new, to be exact ... You can just see the top of the FLARKE bookshelf on the right ...

I have actually got rid of the FLARKE TV rack along with my Philips aquarium-sized TV for the makeover, so that is how I have been able to continue my love affair for IKEA: Get rid of old furniture and buy new ones ... Just like I did with the RAST and ROBIN chests of drawers and the tall ANEBODA cabinet ...

When I think about it, I have hoarder's remorse (if there's such a thing) for the RAST chest of drawers ... It was my first IKEA furniture, so of course it had the highest sentimental value ... But, I moved on, I guess ...

Anyway, recently I went to IKEA to get a replacement bulb for my wall spotlight, which you may have an idea of how it looks like if you decide to read the room makeover post ... Now with the MRT, getting to IKEA is really easy and convenient ... It used to be that one needs to take the LRT to Kelana Jaya station, get off and take a shuttle bus to IKEA ... Waiting for the free bus is ... I hate waiting ... One time, I decided to take a bus to One Utama and WALKED to IKEA ... It was a very hot day, that's all I remember ...

But, with the MRT, all anyone needs to do is take the LRT and get off at Pasar Seni or KL Sentral and take the MRT to Mutiara Damansara ... I prefer Pasar Seni, 'coz it's a shorter walk to the underground station ... Once you get off at Mutiara Damansara, you need to walk through covered walkways, eCurve and The Curve before you reach IPC, where IKEA is housed ...

The escalator to the Mutiara Damansara station ...

Turn around, walk a bit and go up the escalator ...

And you find yourself at the MRT egress for eCurve ... From here, you go down a floor via the first escalator you see and take the very right ...

The aforementioned escalator next to the South Circle signage ... Don't go down the escalator facing you ... That will take you straight to LG ... I made the mistake of doing this once ... Instead, turn 180 degrees and walk straight ...

Until you reach this spot, which is on the left if you enter eCurve ... See the MRT signage? But honestly, when I tried to find my way to IKEA after taking the MRT the first time, I was quite confused ... The layout of eCurve, imo, is not consumer-friendly ...

... and from the position I took the above photo, turning left, you can see the Street leading up to The Curve ...

Once you pass through the Street and enter The Curve, you can take different routes to IPC ... I always take the South Entrance because it seems to be the most direct way ... If I'm not mistaken, you can immediately see the entrance to IPC once you reach the South Entrance's threshold ... Unfortunately, I did not take a photo to affirm this ... But, for me, I'd rather take the underground walkway that leads straight to IKEA , which means I take the first left after crossing the South Entrance threshold ...