I’m very comforted to find that the Ikea shopping experience is similar anywhere in the world. The difference is mainly to do with size of the store, which affects the inventory available. The one here at Schaumberg is the largest I’ve visited, it being the US after all.

I got there early. First stop was the restaurant for meatballs — it’s been a while and I was totally happy to find out that it’s on special for just $1.

On my shopping list were: sofa bed, small table, rug, kitchen table & chairs, floor cushion, dessert bowls. Obviously can’t buy all of them, but I wanted to see what’s available this season.

In the end, I did buy the sofa bed, the Beddinge system to be exact. Imagine when I took the stuff to my car to find…the box was too long, even with the back seats down. Yikes!!! So I drove home very slowly and carefully with the boot door open and held down by a piece of rope. It wasn’t too bad. My downstairs neighbour helped me take it upstairs, thanks Dave.

Assembly was a doddle. Oh, I also got a couple of square cushions to go with it. And a 3-cushion system for the floor in the bay window. I saw the kitchen bar table I liked, that will have to be another trip.