Ikea Tales

 

 

Well, it’s that time again – school’s back in session.  Last year, I showed pictures of my daughter Elisabeth’s dorm room (above) that we fixed up with help mostly from Pine Cone Hill and Target.   My daughter is really the one who furnished it – she picked out the brown futon and hot pink chairs and ottoman from Target – and the brown and white bedding from Pine Cone Hill.  She also picked out the white flokati rug.  I think I only picked out the lamps with the brown shades from Target and the white desk chair from PB  Teens.   While pictures of her dorm room made the school magazine, she didn’t make it the whole school year with her roommate.  School schedules and boyfriends got in the way and in the spring she moved into a single room which I wouldn’t even dare show here - what a mishmash all this cute brown and white and pink furniture ended up looking like!   So, now she’s starting her second year in a new apartment, unfurnished.  She’s spent the summer on Pinterest, planning out everything.  The car left today, packed with lots of things “borrowed” from my house, such as a blue and white garden seat and white vases.   I haven’t had much say in her apartment’s decor, again, but I have tried to steer her in one direction or the other.

 

Lucy Webb, the new puppy

We’re off now to Florida to help her settle into her new apartment.  We have five days to pull everything together.  It’s been like planning an army maneuver, preordering things online and talking with delivery men and installers.   To make everything even more complicated, she is taking a new puppy with her, Lucy.   I gave up my annual trip to the beach in order to housetrain Lucy for the apartment.  It was my goal to have her completely broken in by September, but you know – that’s Elisabeth’s problem now.   Ben and I think we stand about a 50% chance of having to go back and bring Lucy home permanently with us, but we’ll see. 

 

Hooked on Houses new sunroom Ikea chaise with Dash and Albert Rug and Pillows by So Sarah Sews To read the story, go HERE.

Our first stop will be IKEA, of course.  I only wish we could have ordered online from Ikea and had it all delivered and waiting for us – but Elisabeth swore to me that they didn’t sell online and I didn’t find out that they actually do until it was too late.   So, we are going to fight the crowds and hope everything she wants is in stock.    Her major purchase will be one of their famous slipped covered sofas in white (see above.) The big discussion is whether she will get the sofa and chaise or just a sofa.  I want her to just get the sofa because the living area is small, but she wants the sofa with chaise.  Not sure who will win this battle.   We’ll be getting the matching side chairs and ottoman – either one or two depending on the sofa we get.    I was so excited when Julia from Hooked on Houses posted pictures of her new sunroom with the Ikea sofa  in it.  Did you see it?   Her sunroom really turned out so cute!   I was surprised by how full and cushy the cushions looked and emailed Julia to see if she had added any filling to them.  Nope, the cushions are original to the sofa.   Also, Julia gave a tutorial on her blog on how to best iron the slipcovers which come extremely wrinkled in the box.  Now they tell me!  Add an iron and ironing board to the growing list of things to buy.

 

This month’s cover of  Country Living really got me excited!  The sofa is the Ikea slipped one – with the Bemz lilac slipcover.  I originally wrote about these linen slipcovers that you can buy to fit the Ikea sofa’s here.   While somewhat pricy, one day, Lizzy can always update her sofa with a cover like this.  Sooo cute!  Since I originally wrote that article, Bemz now offers slipcovers in some contemporary Designers Guild and Marimekko fabrics.    

 

While staring at this picture, I realized that I actually have this same exact coffee table in my garage – I had bought it for a job but it didn’t work out.  It’s perfect for Elisabeth though – it’s free, minus the shipping (which costs more than the wholesale table cost, typical.)   With the Ikea sofa, chairs and this bleached coffee table, it’s a good basic start.   I doubt everything we ordered online will be in while I’m still in Florida, so I’m not sure I’ll have pictures to show, but here’s what else she has chosen for her apartment: 

 

 

She got two chocolate colored linen pillows from  Restoration Hardware in the big size for the sofa and two in the lumbar size for the chairs.  Funny, she didn’t want any printed pillows.  Hmmm, wonder where she got that from?

 

And this throw in the brown stripe – to keep the sofa clean from the puppy.   Also, I have a striped brown and beige small dhurri rug that I gave her for the sofa – the more it’s covered up, the less she has to wash the slipcovers.

 

From Wisteria, this skirted table will hold her TV.  We thought it was cuter than a typical TV stand.

 

She got this mirror from Wisteria for either behind her sofa or bed, not sure which yet.

 

These stools from Wisteria are for her island bar.

 

I want her to get either this table from Ikea or…

 

Maybe this one from Cost Plus World Market.  The table would double as a desk for all her homework.  Cough.

 

 

The lamps are from Ballard Designs.

For her bedroom, we went with the standard Pottery Barn arched, white slipcovered headboard with white and linen colored bedding along with lilac linen accent pillows.   The dresser is in bleached wood and comes from Ikea.  The tables and lamps all come from catalogues like Wisteria or Ballard Designs.  And late one night, I preordered all the dishes and glasses and cutlery from World Market (so cheap).     Furnishing an apartment could be really expensive, but by buying a sofa for $400 and chairs for $200 – we are really keeping costs way down.  Also, a lot of the items are on sale now, which helped even more. 

 

The end tables for the living area came from Wisteria.

 

While shopping online, Elisabeth kept a number in her head – anything over $500 was “way too expensive” I would hear her murmur.   The linen and white and brown theme started when she picked out the skirted table from Wisteria.   I had thought she would go for more bright colors, but she wants it all to be more monochrome and muted.    If she ever changes her mind, she could always add a few printed pillows which will change the entire look.   Who knows?  Maybe next year, she’ll get that lilac linen Bemz slipcover and really change the decor.

 

  

We picked out the Belgian linen duvet and shams and dust ruffle from Restoration Hardware.  A  few days later we were informed the dust ruffle is back ordered – now what?

 

In the end, it’s just a college apartment, her first one, and hopefully she’ll live here for the next three  years and use most of this for her first after-college apartment too.   It’s hard to sit back and not order everything from my wholesale sources, but Ikea, Wisteria and Ballard  Designs are much better suited for a college student.    So, now it’s on to Ikea.  Wish me luck.  If you are in the Boca Raton area Ikea and you see a fat, middle aged lady in all white linen – on the floor passed out – that will be me.   Ben will be at the hotel, watching the puppy.  Tough duty.   At least he won’t be on the beach.  As luck would have it, there’s a hurricane heading straight for Florida this week!  I’m hoping it’s not an omen.

 

 

 

 

And, finally, on The Skirted Roundtable this week, Linda and I welcomed Artie Vanderpool from Color Outside the Lines to discuss the end of the Million Dollar Decorators season one.  Megan was out of town, so Artie graciously agreed to join us.  He wrote a weekly recap of the series on his blog and was quite knowledgeable about a lot of what was happening behind the scenes.

 

The five designers from the Million Dollar Decorators

 

Here are some of my favorite scenes from the series:

Kathryn Ireland’s fights with the uber bitch, socialite Shannon Factor.  I’m dying to know what Shannon thought when she saw how Bravo portrayed her.

 

 

Martyn Lawrence Bullard (Delicious) and Kathryn Ireland (Darling) the night that Kathryn passed out drunk in Palm Springs.

 

Nathan Turner and  Mary McDonald slumming it at market!  These two are the funniest together and made me wish I was besties with them!

 

Ross-Pretty Boy- and “Jam” take a bath together and everyone goes crazy, especially moi.  These two have to be the most gorgeous couple after Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie OR Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (haha.)

 

Anytime the wine drinking housekeeper Jacqueline showed up, it was hysterical.   The breakout star of the series.

 

OMG!!!!!  Jacqueline The Second!   One day I had my wet hair in a scarf and my glasses on and I looked in the mirror and screamed It’s Jacqueline!!!!!  Blackmail material.  Scary.

 

Be sure to listen to this week’s Skirted Roundtable!!!  It’s a good one.  HERE.