I love IKEA. When they opened their store in Frisco I was very excited. We spent many weekends in Frisco this last summer. We bought Billy Bookcases to add storage under the bar in the living room. They look great and add function to a previously wasted space. Then we bought the pot rack to add extra storage in the kitchen over our island. We love it! Our last purchase was the computer cabinet.
So after many months of IKEA withdrawal I finally convinced Nathan to go back today (before football playoff games of course!). I have many projects buzzing around in my head. I want to make our closet more functional. Of course there is the ever looming need to make the children's retreat (the room between our two spare rooms) into a more children like retreat for our future babies. And making the children's retreat more child-friendly means moving the home office. I use the term "home office" lightly. We have our computer and a 5 drawer filing cabinet. Neither of those items is child-friendly. Which brings me to the most important and most expensive project....making our front room into a home office.
But it cannot simply be a home office. It must also supply need storage for our china and other dishes that don't fit in our kitchen. IKEA offers lots of options. I love the Billy system but I don't think the shelves are deep enough to hold our plates behind closed doors. So there is always the option of the Bonde system. So many choices.
But we did find some things we liked today. For instance. We found this system. 
It is called the EXPEDIT TV storage unit. It comes in white and black-brown. I don't know which color I would want yet. The one they have on display at the store is the black-brown color which we both liked. But white leaves us options for other accessories and wall color. The best thing about this unit are all the square cubby holes. You can buy baskets or totes to fit in the squares for excellent toy storage. The ones like are these. 
The box is called the LEKMAN box and the are $10 each. I like that you can see through them so it is easy to see the toys inside. Plus as we collect toys over the years we can sort them into different containers. The shelves are also a great size for books. I really think we will go with this unit for the children's retreat. Minus the flat panel TV. There is no way we are going to have a better TV for the kids to watch Blue's Clues on than we would in the living room to watch sports on! :)
We did buy a few things at IKEA today. I bought a $3 clock for my classroom because I haven't had one in months. One of my students knocked if off the wall and broke it last fall. We also bought this useful contraption.
This is called the RATIONELL Plastic Bag Dispenser. It cost $2. It is amazing. We already have all our bags in it and they are so easy to remove. I have tried all kinds of bag contraptions and this is my favorite by far!
We also bought some art. We finally found some we could agree on. But they aren't in frames. So that will be the next step. At least we have it in our house though, that is a start. My favorite is this ready made grouping. To see it you need to visit the site link. It is too small to see here. I almost didn't buy it but there is something striking about it to me. Now I just have to find frames and a place to hang it.
The day was good. I love IKEA. Our future promises many more trips to the superstore. But for now I am satisfied! Time for my bath and then off to bed. We actually have a full week of school ahead of us!
