"So what went wrong?" I asked the woman in front of me in the line at IKEA. She was pushing a shiny white box with stainless feet and a couple of hinges. It looked sturdy, stylish but unfinished.
"I'm building my own kitchen, one cabinet at a time. But this one has a broken piece, and I discovered it's out of stock. I can't get a replacement part, or another cabinet to match."
Her kitchen will look like a seven year old with a gaping hole where a tooth should be. I did the mental math: hundreds of screws attached to dozens of laminated boards multiplied by weeks of work equals a crisis. "What are you going to do?"
"I don't know yet." I bet a woman bold enough to tackle such a DIY project has the ingenuity to solve the problem.
I was glad I was only there to make an exchange.
IKEA has taken "big box store" to a new level, three stories and enough walking to get your recommended 10,000 daily steps. Even if you don't want anything from there, it's worth seeing the phenomenon. I think Trump would call it "tremendous."
Their rooms of coordinated furniture appeal to the pragmatist, the interior decorator on a budget, and the dreamers. The 615 square foot model house tempts engaged couples to put the whole shebang on their registry. (If you didn't use the link, go back and see. This is IKEA genius.)
415,000 square feet of attractive displays teased me into thinking maybe I could make furniture hold together with pegs, those weird connectors (CAM lock nuts) and allen wrenches.
But I know better. For example, my last DIY file cabinet looks pretty good, but a new gap has appeared between the right side and the drawers. Trying to move it, we lifted it by the top it came most of the way off. So why would I even consider more cheap book shelves and a TV console to replace the ones I didn’t move?
1. My sons-in-law volunteered to put the kits together. They've had more experience, and they look good so far. (Still waiting on the exchange. I hope I don't turn out like the kitchen lady.) 2. If I buy IKEA we'll be able to afford a trip much more enjoyable than the Glover 2016-2017 escorted hospital tour of North Carolina and Colorado.
Thanks, IKEA. I can shelve our books without shelving our dreams.
