I <3 IKEA

I’m not a typical guy. I care about how my house looks. The 20-year old sectional sofa with threadbare cushions that is sitting in my living room bothers me. I’m not a huge fan of the urine-colored paint on the walls, either. The massive tangle of wires underneath the TV could also be improved upon.

But this blog entry isn’t supposed to be one full of complaining. It’s actually a blog of gratitude. Last weekend a friend of mine gave me tons of free, nearly-new furniture. Here’s the list:

    * Queen size mattress and wooden frame from IKEA
    * Full size mattress and metal girly frame from IKEA
    * Futon and cover from IKEA
    * Two televisions
    * Two television stands from IKEA
    * Coffee table
    * Desk
    * Desk chair
    * Two rugs
    * Side table
    * Two lamps
    * Etc

That’s a lot of nearly-new furniture. All I had to do was rent a cargo van, enlist the help of my roommates, and spend the majority of the afternoon disassembling, loading, unloading, assembling, and arranging furniture.

I completely redecorated my room. Before, I had a giant l-shaped desk, a full size bed, small bookshelf, and a wardrobe. Now, I have an IKEA queen size bed, a small IKEA desk, a large IKEA bookshelf (that I bought last night on Craigslist for $30), and the same wardrobe. And a rug. And a bedside table from IKEA.

It’s a completely new room. The design is really classy now. Before, it would have probably been classified as “college dorm”. Now it’s “young professional”. I took down my huge American flag (but left up the 4’ x 4’ picture if Einstein). I love my room! And it’s so nice to finally fit on a bed.

In addition, I was able to transform the empty middle room upstairs into a second living room. There was a lot of storage and junk lying around, and the room hadn’t been vacuumed in nearly a year, but with a little TLC, a futon, lamp, TV, and coffee table, the room looks great!

So what’s next? I have Friday off work, and Brooke and I are going to paint the living room and kitchen. After much deliberation, swatches, and paint samples, the color I’ve chosen is: white. Versatile. Rugged. Timeless. Off-white would be nice too, but harder to pick out the right color.

Now that we have an upstairs living room and will have painted kitchen and downstairs living room, the only thing to do will be to get new furniture for the downstairs living room. When we re-negotiated our contract with our landlord for next year, she was generous enough to give us $700 to buy new furniture for the living room. The furniture will stay with the apartment, since it’s rented as semi-furnished, but it will be a gigantic improvement over what we have now. And since I’m the only person in the apartment who cares what it looks like, I’m the one who gets to do all the legwork. Thank you Craigslist.

And then I’m done. I swear. That’s it. No more. The house will be officially perfect.