smittenbyu | IKEA Couples therapy.. (Reply)

newlifeinstpaul - this post, IKEA as couples therapy, completely made me think of you!! Ha ha…

The first time I heard of IKEA was when I was in college and roomed with a Swede in Hawai’i. IKEA was thousands of miles away from us. However, she would have the catalog for it and she would dream up of ideas for some imaginary home. Well, for her au-pair kid in Chicago! Her host-mom-friend let her indulge in the excitement. She would with so much pride and excitement bring the catalog home from the mail box! Then I actually visited one in Seattle. I was there on holiday and staying with a close friend. They are an IKEA family, all members of the family (except dad who worked for Boeing) worked at IKEA. They absolutely loved it and hated it! I imagine that’s the norm for any position dealing with grown adult customers.

And IKEA was forgotten until one opened in Kuala Lumpur! Where we became customers! We didn’t buy any big furniture pieces but small accessories – coffee tables, etc. We got some lights from there too. After the fire that ravaged half of our apartment in 2005, we became stronger supporters of IKEA. None of their products were affected by the fire, even the lamp posts (fair enough, we had the non-plastic ones). It also makes me wonder what they paint over the “wood”!!

The true IKEA experience came when I got married. Even before we got married, N began making trips to look for beds (he was sleeping on an air mattress). Our first purchase from IKEA was the queen sized platform bed and mattress. And slowly it grew. I think the first two years of our marriage we lived in IKEA. :P

Our last purchase was a big wardrobe. We no longer assemble it ourselves. We paid for the assembly. And likely will not go to IKEA for a long time to come. Our next piece of furniture will probably be a dining table. The current one will just about make it through the move. I don’t know. It’s also an IKEA table that N had picked up 9 years ago from craig’s list.

But N still gets excited about going to IKEA. Me not so much. Maybe another year or two, I just might get the excitement of assembling and pretending to be magnificent carpenters. But alas, I really shouldn’t insult the good work carpenters or anyone who builds stuff do!

But this article really tickled me and I couldn’t stop laughing, in a good way! It’s something we do tell new couples. Shop at IKEA, you will get to know one another in ways no other endeavor does. (I would never recommend have a kid, not even as a joke!)