Saturday, July 10, 2010

Under Construction



We had a little family outing to IKEA tonight, all four of us. It was DH's first trip to this "new" IKEA, which has been open here in Tampa for just over a year now. I can't believe I hadn't dragged him there before now. Neither can he. But he actually enjoyed it. Or he's a very good actor. LOL! My sons (who are still aged 6 and 9 sometimes) wore their Heelies and zoomed all over the place, so they enjoyed it too.

First, we stopped in the restaurant for dinner. I'm always impressed by the combination of the goodness and cheapness of the food. I know it's a cafeteria, but it feels more than that. It was 2-for-1 Buffalo chicken wraps tonight so DS#2 chowed down on both. Plus fries. LOL! DH and I had the chicken fingers, and DS#1 had the pasta, meatballs and marinara plus almond cake for dessert. I split chocolate cake with DS#2. Yes, he still had room for cake after those wraps!

After dinner, we began our my mission for new shelving for the sewing room. I already knew I wanted Expedit shelving. I know everyone and their dog has these shelves, but there's a reason. They hold a lot of crap, look nice and don't cost a lot. Search "IKEA Expedit" on Flickr for some great combinations.

Until I saw the shelves in person again, I wasn't sure exactly how many I really wanted. I ended up with two of the 4x4 and one of the 4x2 (cube-y things, not measurements). I had checked the website before leaving and the 4x4's were priced at the "new lower price" of $99 each. Except they were marked $129 in the store. A quick conference with a manager and we learned that the new catalog had just come out yesterday and the prices were raised overnight, although still not on the website when I checked upon our return or even now that it's technically two days later. But they still honored the $99 price for me, which was great. I heart IKEA.

We also picked up a $7.99 floor lamp for DS#2's room, some 99¢ lint rollers and a bunch of foodstuff from the Bistro section. Yum! Cinnamon buns for breakfast and lox for lunch!

Total spent: $298. I heart IKEA.

So of course this means my sewing room is a HUGE disaster right now. DS#1 has built two of the units so far; one is moved into the sewing room and the other is in the hallway outside of it. The third is on the floor in my bedroom. I don't like clutter so I'll be very motivated to get this swapping done as soon as possible.

I also think I might have to have to spend as much as the cost of one shelf (or more) on some bins to put in the cubbies. But that seems kind of silly to me so before I drop the cash, I'm going to try to work out "refashioning" all the cardboard these shelves were packed in into some DIY fabric-covered bins. Box cutter, ruler, packing tape, spray adhesive, fabric — it shouldn't be too difficult. I'll ask DH to pick up the spray adhesive at Home Depot tomorrow when he's getting a quart of paint mixed to cover the holes I'll need to patch when we he moves the mirror and some pictures. A check of the leftover paint we had and we discovered it was dried out. Florida heat kills paint in the garage.

13 comments:

  1. Lucky you to get all that storage! It will be wonderful in the end, even though everything is all a-scrambled right now...

    This is a tutorial that I found online and hope to use to help me organise my crafty things, perhaps if you change the dimensions it would work for your shelves:
    http://jezzeblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/no-interfacing-storage-basket-tutorial.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ikea is great! I want to get some fabric from Ikea and make new curtains and a bedspread for the sewing room.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I have these! I love them. And, when I get my stash under control, I'd like to add the desk so it can by multi function. I think you'll be really happy. What I don't love though, is that they definitely should not come apart once put together! So, they are still in my small bedroom and my sewing room migrated to the cellar.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, those look perfect for stashing fabric! Lucky lady... and you got the sale price, too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. just an FYI, the fabric covered bins from Target fit the Expedit shelves. It is a snug fit, but they fit. I got mine on sale for $6 each. I thought about making my own, but for $6 at Target, not worth my time. I have a combo of the fabric covered bins, plastic bins, and open shelves.

    I :heart: Ikea, too. Our closest Ikea is about two hours away, which is probably a good thing. If it were closer, I would spend lots more money.

    ReplyDelete
  6. IKEA makes bins specifically for those shelves. They have some in really cool colors too. I worked for a company where we used those shelves and bins for room dividers. I like your idea of making your own bins, but sounds like a lot of work -although fun work. Can't wait to see the before and after pics. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't wait to see what you do with these shelves! I've been begging my husband to build me some shallow built in shelving for my sewing room; right now I have an old "entertainment center" but the shelves are too deep so can't see what's at the back, plus I have MOUNTAINS of fabric all over the place lining the perimeter of the room... DH says "stop buying fabric until you sew up what you have." Silly husband... :-) I never thought of Ikea. Are these shelves for fabric storage, or for storing notions/accessories/threads/books etc?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rebecca Grace - For me, the shelves are to store everything BUT fabric. I have my fabric on shelves in the closet in the sewing room. But there's no reason why these shelves wouldn't work for fabric for you.

    Mermaids/Teri - Thanks for the info, but even buying 1/2 of the number of bins vs. the cubbies I'll have will still be close to $150. (24 x $6). I can buy a lot of fabric to cover boxes for $150. ;-) So, I think I'm leaning toward making them. But I need to see just how many I'll need first before I decide whether it's more effective to buy or make. I'll probably end up with a combination of both.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is going to look amazing when you've reorg'd! I was wondering what you were going to do about baskets for the cubes because some of the best uses of the cubes that I've seen have used some sort of basket.

    However, I'm not amazed that you are making your own! Can't wait to see pics of the finished room.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ugh, they raised the price to 129?? That's what I get for waiting to buy one until I move!! I plan on getting the 4x2s for my daughter's room to corral all her toys and get them off the floor.

    I LOVE those buffalo chicken wraps! I'm trying to figure out how to make those at home but I don't know jack about cooking.

    ReplyDelete
  11. These look perfect for your sewing room!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ikea is the best!! We always eat there when we go, too.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh my! You are giving me more organizing ideas!! It sounds like you have a good plan. I hope that you'll continue keeping us informed with your progress.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for each and every comment. I appreciate them all, but I have to be honest and let you know that I'm usually bad about answering questions. I hope you understand that there just isn't enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

To help keep spam comments under control, any comments to blog posts that are more than 30 days old are moderated and will not show up immediately.