I Heart IKEA!

***Disclaimer:  I really planned to take great before and after pictures but before I got out of bed my husband was busy dismantling everything so he could fix and paint the wall. ***

My goal since I have been home is to simplify and unclutter our home.  I soon came to realize that there were too many thing unnecessary things in our home.  Being here all day and homeschooling has made me want to pare down and keep only those things that are most important to us and those that we need.

I was never satisfied with the look of our dining/living room.  This is one large room, it is half of the first floor.  It had become too cluttered when we had moved the computer armoire in here from the basement and then we had added an additional desk for our school things.  Our tv sits atop the fireplace mantle~not what I envisioned but you have to give in to somethings~we did not have a good place to hold the electronics and dvds, cds, etc.  This area became a hodge podge of furniture that was never really functional and looked sloppy. 

Sorry about the Christmas pictures.  They're the only ones I had because I really did not like this look.  This is a set of shelves my brother installed when we moved in.  It held our electronics and a variety of other things.  I was never too happy with these.

Right below these shelves there was a cabinet my mom had given me.  We tried to use this to store dvd, cds, etc.

It was never the ideal way to store these things and it always looked sloppy to me.  I have always wanted a floor to ceiling unit in this area.  I didn't think I would be able to ever find one. On the wall opposite this is our couch. Right up against the arm of the couch was a small desk to hold our school books, and across from that is our computer armoire.  It was all so crowded and made this area look like a cubicle.  It also pushed the couch closer to the dining room side of this large room.

Well, along comes the IKEA catalog which I immediately begin to flip through.  Out comes the tape measure and I begin to wonder how well could some new things fit in this room.  I find the perfect bookcase and love it.  It is floor to ceiling, simple but yet wonderful.  I left the catalog and tape measure sitting on the coffee table and dear hubby notices it and asks what I was looking for.  I show him the wonderful little piece that I have my heart set on and he loves it, too.  This was Sunday and we couldn't make it to IKEA that day~his sister was coming to visit so early the next morning, really early (6:30 am) he began working on taking down the old shelves and filling in the holes so he can paint the walls and we headed to IKEA.  We found the perfect little bookcase and fell in love but at a little over 91" it was too tall for this room.  He decided he could cut a bit off the top and it would fit perfectly.  I was thrilled.  We head off to find the shelf and load it up.  Once we got downstairs to the self serve furniture, we find the bookcase and it is marked down from $179 to $79.  It just couldn't get any better than.  

We loaded it up brought it home and anxiously put it together.  I was able to set it up with all of our school books stored away, the dvds and cds stored away and it looks so much better.  We purchased these wonderful storage boxes at IKEA and stored all our school things in them.

Here is what it looks like.  Now we just need to cover those wires and it will be perfect.  I am so happy with this unit.

This is why I heart IKEA!!!  Of course, I have a whole day planned to go and visit again and peruse through all their wonderful things.  They have such great storage ideas and I really need to work on the storage in this home.  It was built in the  1950's and is severely lacking in good storage.  I didn't have much time to look through the store.  When my husband shops, he is a man on a mission.  He goes in only for what was intended and he will not, I repeat, will not get sidetracked.  There were so many pretty things calling to me and I couldn't only glance at them as I walked quickly by to keep up with him. SIGH~~~~~~~

IKEA is about an hour away and I already told the kids that it would be one of our summer day trips.  I can't wait.  My kids love the food in their cafeteria.  My dd loves to look at all the stylish rooms they have set up and dream of someday having her own place.  I can't believe that's coming so soon.