The IKEA experience

So for Christmas this year my wife and I bought each other a wardrobe set from Ikea to organize our closet. Prior to said wardrobe set, we had these godawful wire shelves kind of drilled into the closet walls, which were pulling out of the walls and which sucked anyway. So it seemed a great solution to put these do-it-yourself-er wardrobes in there.

So most of you have been to an Ikea I assume, unless you live in some area where they don't have them. If you don't, Ikea is this gigantic Swedish based furniture store that is loaded with weird looking furniture. Some of it you'll like, some you'll despise, and some will just puzzle the heck out of you. Just one of those ".... what??" experiences. You have many of those sorts of experiences at Ikea. The thing is, everyone picks different furniture to love, hate, and "what" about. Go figure. The stores also have their own little restaurants and supervised play areas (like little shopping daycares) which make them popular with families. Who then go and buy confusing furniture.

One of the most confusing things about the furniture is the names. Each piece has a name, chosen by some marketing firm in Sweden. Unfortunately, Swedish is different enough from English that they don't always choose great names. The "Lack" is a case in point. This actual Ikea name refers, I believe, to a table or shelf of some sort. The name lacks something, but I'm not sure what (ha ha). They haven't named anything the "Krapi" yet, but I think it's just a matter of time.

In any case, we went to Ikea and bought our wardrobes (the "Komplement" style, if you were wondering), and if I wasn't such a lazy fellow I'd post a picture of the assembled wardrobes here so you could all see what the fuss is about. But I am lazy, so just picture the assembled wardrobes using your imagination and keep reading. Assembly went relatively well. I felt like such a grownup when I used a drill to join the wardrobes together and attach them to the wall! More than just a grown-up though, a man. I immediately ran downstairs, drank a beer, belched, and turned on a football game after wards. The Vikings won. But I digress.

So the point of this whole long and boring barrage of babble (can't think of any other "b's" to put in there, but let me know if you do) was that we had to use the Ikea instruction books for assembly. Now Ikea is Swedish, so they're truly international, and so their instruction books have no words. They have pictures, and some times, though certainly not all the time, the pictures make sense. But other times they look kind of like Dali drawing an assembly guide for a Lego set. Interesting, but not always helpful. So for all those of you who have had this Ikea Experience, or who would like to learn a little more of what it's like, I offer this youtube video, which explains it perfectly. It's worth noting that all of the pictures from the manual they show in this clip are actually from the Ikea instructions. I've put that table together myself, as it happens, so I know.



Happy New Year.