Up until yesterday evening, this chair was in my living room. That’s pretty much how it usually looks, too — maybe even a little better than usual. The tear is relatively new, but the cover has been washed recently, leaving only the stains that will never, ever come out. Often the cushion in on the floor and sometimes the entire chair is tipped over, serving as a fort.
I don’t have to tell you it’s an Ikea chair. Ed and I picked it up in the As Is room for a discount because it has black smudges on the white fabric under the cover. We’ve had it since we first moved in together last summer eleven years ago.
On the one hand, I have three young children who destroy everything. (Well, at least one of them destroys everything. I won’t say who.) So clearly “good” furniture is something that can wait. On the other hand, I am sick of living in an Ikea showroom from 1998 that looks like it’s been through the wash with a box of crayons and a pink bird. I’m ready for real, grown up furniture.
Lucky for me, quality furniture shopping sprees are way beyond my means, so I won’t be tempted. Still, I’d promised myself that we were done with Ikea for furniture. (Because who can ever give up the meatballs and drawer organizers?) We would replace our current stuff sloooowly by either saving up for great individual pieces or scoring great finds that we can restore ourselves (yeah, right).
At the same time, though, I realized we could use some actual furniture in our basement playroom. It may have been the sight of my nine-year-old niece sitting on the rubber play mats amidst a pile of blocks and dolls and dinosaurs and saying, “I’m bored.” The kids are getting older and might like to actually sit on a chair or a couch while they’re down there. I guess that’s understandable.
So there we were at Ikea last night, checking the bigger kids into the ball room after eating at the cafeteria and getting ready for a leisurely stroll through the showrooms, just Ed, myself and baby Mary. It was practically a date! We noticed that they had just changed over many of their showrooms so it was all nice and fresh. (And also the very best time to shop at the As IS section. Shut up, Rebecca. Shut up. Don’t do it.)
Um, yeah. So there we were in the As Is area salivating over a $2000 display model fridge that had been marked down 50%. If only my plain old, ordinary fridge didn’t work so well! But, alas, we don’t need a fridge.* And then my gaze fell upon a chair.
Everything I hate about Ikea furniture — assembling the damn stuff, how flimsy it can be and how it looks like it was just spit out of an assembly line — this chair was not. It was sturdy (heavy, even) and attractive and already full assembled. (Another AS IS room perk.) There was a giant side-by-side-with-ice-dispenser-fridge-shaped hole in my heart and I was going to have to fill it with a Stokholm chair.
Behold.
I’m never going to give you up, Ikea As Is room!
Now I just need to find the perfect thing to hang on the wall above the chair.
*And yes, I totally would buy a fridge from Ikea. In fact, both my stove and dishwasher are from the Ikea As Is and they are both fantastic.
Come to think about it, not only do we have a lot of Ikea stuff, but most of it is As Is room finds. What have you scored from the As Is room? Is there any interest at all in hearing about some of our other As Is finds? Because I can go on about them, it seems.