Thursday, September 25, 2008

For the love of IKEA

I have a bit of a thing for IKEA. We go way back...I vividly remember helping my mom put together my first desk and bookshelf, purchased at IKEA when I was around 7. In college their kitchen wares dotted our kitchen. A few pieces of their furniture rounded out that of our furnished university apartment in our first years, and supplemented the furniture my parents donated when we moved out on our own. Post college my house was a mix of IKEA and yard sale finds. The point- IKEA and I have a history.

So imagine my disappointment when I learned our current city doesn't have one. The closest is a 6 hour drive, over mountains. Though I love it, I'm not that hard core. Most of the time it's not a big deal. But right now we NEED bookcases. We've put off buying them, but have more than 8 boxes of books that need a new home.

The bookshelves don't need to be anything fancy, just a place for us to put our somewhat ridiculous library. In fact these would do us just fine. I'm especially in love with the $20 price tag. Why not just order them you ask?

Subtotal: $59.97

Shipping and Handling: $215.16

Order Total: $275.13

The shipping is 3.5 times more expensive than the actual product. For that kind of money we can get nice bookshelves. So I'll be going back to the drawing board.

4 comments:

E.C. said...

I guess I should consider myself lucky I've never lived anywhere near an IKEA and hence never caught the bug.

sara l said...

It is definitely a bug, but here's why it's so great. We ended up at the big bulls eye, essentially bought what was pictured in the post, and spent 13 more per item.

When a news came up that we might be getting one recently every local group I'm on/blog I read went crazy.

Anonymous said...

Have you tried getting shelves at a home improvement store? For something that doesn't need to be fancy, that might be your best bet. You might also try thrift stores. Personally I haven't bought a house yet so I love my collapsable shelves from The Container Store.

sara l said...

We ended up getting some from target. They're that compressed wood material that puts off VOC's, so we've put some spider plants in the area to help balance things.

I tried thrift stores, the Habitat store, C&B, West Elm, and a few other places. In the end size, look, and price @ Target were the best (though still more than IKEA).