I was first introduced to IKEA just over 2 years ago in Fairbanks, Alaska. Our last summer in Alaska we moved into a small cabin off of Farmers Loop Road. It was a one room cabin with a loft for the sleeping area. It was completely furnished in IKEA furniture. I really liked the look of the cabin with the IKEA furniture, really clean and contemporary. I worried about how it would hold up to the toddler test, and I had every right to worry. The first problem was a shaggy white carpet. I was scared that we would stain it so we kept blankets over the top of it. Somehow, even with the carpet covered, we managed to get white shaggy fur all over our clothes, and all over our toddler. Annoyance number two was a really awkward shaped piece of storage furniture that wasn't good for storing much of anything. It was wooden with a velvety black lid (see photo above) We soon found out it was a fragile piece of furniture and promptly broke the lid lifting mechanism. We also had an incident involving a chicken enchilada and a kitchen chair cushion. We could not get the stain out and eventually asked my sister who lived nearest to an IKEA drive to San Diego and buy a replacement cushion for us. There were many odd shaped furniture pieces there and the whole experience left me with a slight dislike of IKEA furniture. On a recent trip to utah we visited the new IKEA store there. It was huge! And we loved it. They still have plenty of weird pieces of furniture but we came away fully satistfied in our purchases of 2 kitchen rugs, a bathroom rug, kids plates and cups, a bedroom lamp and dish scrubber. And in the end I think I would even recommend their stuff to friends.
