Daily Sketches. #10 Furniture Store

A typical 2-bedroom apartment in a typical American apartment complex 

where we lived for 1.5 years. Shelves and curtains - IKEA. 

Oak dining table set was bought on sale in my first year living in America.

A desk by the window which you cannot see because of the fern is also from IKEA.

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Write about your last trip to a furniture store – or about a memorable one. Was it with purpose or just browsing? Did you buy anything, or did you leave empty handed? What store was it and why did you choose it? Or maybe it was online shopping?

I can’t remember when exactly I visited a furniture store last time, but I am pretty sure it was IKEA. I hear many snobbish comments about this brand name, but I admit I love IKEA – love both the concept and the reality, a comfortable, creative, affordable and what’s very important uplifting store for many families. My own home has a combination of old furniture (my own hand-me-downs so to speak, since I started here with not a single piece of furniture, and when I earned some money I was able to pick and buy the furniture that I liked, which was many years ago, but I dragged some of those early pieces from city to city, from state to state, from home to home, and so they became my own sort of hand-me-downs over the years), a few pieces from antique shops, though not especially antique in the actual meaning of the word, but still something unique and cozy, and pieces from IKEA.

When I visited IKEA last time, I don’t think I bought anything – we don’t seem to need any furniture for quite a while now, we could even get rid of a few pieces that we store in the basement and don’t use for two or three years. A visit to IKEA is more than a visit to a furniture store to buy a piece for your home. It used to be a playland where our little daughter absolutely loved spending time, and we, young lovers, could simply walk around or sip a cup of coffee and chat in the restaurant while we were child-free for an hour or so, which seems like forever for parents of a young kid. It used to be a place where we from time to time just went for lunch or dinner which is always affordable for a family and almost always good. It used to be and still sometime is a place where you can get fresh ideas of how to organize your own living, using the pieces you already have. I remember that it was such a revelation to hang narrow shelves up high, close to the ceiling, when we lived in a tiny beach house, and then later in an apartment with not enough closet space. Those shelves were space savers, additional storage, and also our own quirk – owners of big houses loved being in our cozy space and complimented us on how we organized it. I credit this store for many of the ideas we got for our little living space, along with those interior decorating books and magazines which I read for years. I did not even have a desire to go to another furniture store for the last ten years or so – I could find anything I needed between antique malls, my own hand-me-downs and IKEA. 

Rise and Write 8-14