The Dreaded IKEA Delivery

My experience with IKEA has been less than positive. 700 little screws fall out of a plastic bag. The instructions are 50 pages long. A key piece is always missing, so you are on the phone with customer service. But, the consistent thread in all of this is, Tim and I always “disagree” as to who is putting it together the right way. A true and memorable bonding experience!

This project was a series of bookcases for our new apartment. Here are the dreaded boxes.

Three bookcases were delivered. Two with glass doors and drawers and one regular bookcase sandwiched in the middle.

Here is my Pinterest inspiration for the project. We have a huge, blank wall in the living room that needed something big on it and we also desperately needed storage/bookcases, so this seemed perfect.

This took almost 4 days to complete and an entire bookcase is still in the box…. I scheduled Task Rabbit behind Tim’s back to come Monday morning and finish this off!

Leftover wallpaper from Rye made it to our new apartment in a random box, so my daughter Emily had the idea to put it in the back of the bookcases with the glass doors – LOVE IT!

A simple spray adhesive from the hardware store on the back of the bookcase worked beautifully. Emily and I measured everything out very carefully because we had to merge two pieces of wallpaper to fill the space. I think we did a pretty good job because you can’t see the seam!

I started to fill the bookcases, then realized most of our books were in storage. Two trips later, we still did not take enough back to our apartment, so one bookcase is completely empty. I will get it done (maybe) before Christmas.

Here is an early version of the unit. Messy.

I love how the wallpaper gives a punch in the background, but does not overwhelm when things are in the bookcase.

Not really sure how to pull this together ~ not a stager!

Fell in love with this recent New Yorker cover. Have to figure out how to use it somewhere here.

The girls Harry Potter collection and a watercolor done by my friend Sherry.

A sculpture Grace did in elementary school.

One of my gift-with-purchase items when I worked at Fred Hayman. This one is for you Joel and Maryann!

This is where we are now. The right bookcase is completely empty and I still have 1-2 empty shelves in the middle bookcase. I am happy though. It fills our empty wall beautifully and the drawers are being used for all of our office stuff.

I am putting another trip to storage on hiatus for a bit. As they say in the south, it is GOOD ENOUGH and I agree!

the wry home