My First Trip to Ikea

This past weekend we made our way to Denver to go pick up the rest of our dishes from the Bed Bath & Beyond up there that was holding them for us. Well, on a whim, we decided that it was time to make our first trip to Ikea.

Getting ready to pull into the parking garage

The Ikea store in Denver just opened in July so it is still very new, but we have been putting off going because we knew it was going to be insane. So finally we decided to take the plunge and brave the crowds and go. I have one word for my first Ikea experience, overwhelming!

There is so much to look at and there are so many people that it was just completely overwhelming and I almost had a panic attack because there were just too many people. You couldn't move a foot in that place without almost bumping into someone and I get very overwhelmed, frustrated and claustrophobic in those types of situations. So needless to say it wasn't the best first trip/experience, but we did walk out of there with some new furniture pieces for very reasonable prices.

So, I thought I would show you our new furniture. I have been eyeballing this coffee table on their website for a while, so while we were there we decided that it was time to finally purchase it. It was only $40!!! And I love it way more than our old coffee table. It is so much more modern looking and it looks so much better with our other furniture! Our old coffee table was making us really lazy too because it had the top that lifted up to the perfect height to put your dinner plate on. So fatty over here would just sit on the couch and watch TV while I ate dinner. I still do, but it is becoming very uncomfortable and inconvenient and it is only a matter of time before I decide that I need to move to the actual dining table.

We also walked out of there with the matching end table to this coffee table! And you are not going to believe how much we spent on the end table. Only $10!!! I have fallen in love with this place because of how cheap they are! Yes, I know, the product probably isn't as good of quality as something a little more pricey, but I really don't care. It works for what we bought it for and that is all that matters to me.

Sorry it is so crappy, I took it with my phone

That was all that we bought the first time we were in there. And I say first time because we ended up going back the next day and walked out with more stuff. Okay, we didn't go back just to go back though. If you have ever been to Ikea you know that everything comes in flat boxes and you have to assemble everything. Well, we got our coffee table home that first night and one of the legs was broken. So, we had to drive all the way back up to Denver which is like a good 45 min to an hour drive for us, so that we could exchange our table. 

Well, we decided to look around again because when we went in the first day we had gone in looking for something specific and didn't find it, so we were looking around to see what our other options were for something that would work. We were looking for a microwave cart or something similar that had some extra storage on it so that we could better utilize the space in our tiny kitchen. Like I said we didn't quite find what we were looking for but we did find this and it ended up working out perfectly!!

All of the stuff on the top two shelves was on our counters and just taking up way too much space, so this actually was probably the best purchase that we made this weekend. And this metal shelf was only $20!! We loved it so much that we actually bought two and put one in our "Office/Entertainment" room. Which is code for our room that we just throw everything into when we don't have anywhere else to put it!

So overall I have to say that our first two trips to Ikea were successful even though they were quite overwhelming. I have to say too that I am actually looking forward to going back to see what else I can find to spruce up our sad little apartment. And I definitely know where we are going shopping when we get a bigger place and need more furniture/more crap to fill it up! And let's just say that it is probably a good thing that we don't live closer to this store because I would spend way too much money in there if we did live closer.

Have you ever been to an Ikea store? Is there one near you? Do you love this place as much as I do?