Surviving buying a kitchen at IKEA

Have you ever purchased a kitchen at IKEA?

I was in New York last weekend and dropped in on my dear friend and former room mate Herve to check out the cool studio he just purchased in the Village.  He’s a top stylist in the New York fashion world, always creating beauty, so it was no surprise his place looked amazing.  It was color coordinated, in red, white, silver and gray, with a smashing IKEA kitchen to match.   Admiring the chic kitchen it’s easy to forget the  11(!)  hours he spent at IKEA in Brooklyn suffering a meltdown!

I’ve been meaning to buy a small kitchen for my summer house, but feel completely overwhelmed as soon as I enter the Swedish maze. I start panicking, ditch my plan, head for the meatballs, then buy something I don’t need on my way out.  So I’m always  impressed when someone has conquered the quest!

Since Herve is not only an experienced IKEA shopper, he was also the head judge on “Scandinavia’s next Top Model”, I was curious to see how he would rate his experience.  So equipped with my new addiction, a flip camera , I asked Herve to take me through it.

Well, I’m sure I’ll get around to buying a kitchen one day…Maybe after I’ve signed up for a graphic design course and found a good therapist.

But let’s face it the end result is great!   Here are some snapshots I took of Herve’s cool place. What do you think?

Pretty cool, huh?

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Herve in front of the sleek Ikea kitchen, above and below.

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A David Bowie drawing.

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12 thoughts on “Surviving buying a kitchen at IKEA

  1. Too funny! We have all been there! At least he has an awesome kitchen to show for it. I usually end up with some colorful random container that I don't know what to do with.

  2. I have an Ikea kitchen and for some reason that day I didn't feel like waiting in line to schedule the delivery. Since we were renovating in two stages, I bought all the upper cabinets and proceeded to pack them into my hatchback Saab and drive back to Arlington in rush hour w/the back "strapped" mostly closed. Needless to say I had the bottom half delivered when it was time.

  3. Jill, this is HILARIOUS!!!! Awesome video — had me laughing out loud. I guess those people mark their reputation on price, and think they don't have to care about their crappy customer service. Too funny.

  4. VERY COOL! Herve did a great job. Looks like we should request some vacation time when planning to purchase from IKEA….

  5. I love this story and have one of my own!!! Result is fantastic but getting there is so painful. Mine looks fabolous and noone believes it is IKEA. Want to show pictures Jill?

  6. i used to work at ikea. one day they asked me to put together a desk, after struggling for almost an hour, a colleague walked past and took pity on me. "oh, that one. it's easier to put that together if you start with the last instruction first." he said. "they should re-write the manual so that the customer knows this," i responded. "hey, they can figure it out. and besides they can always bring it back and we'll show them how to do it properly. and maybe they'll buy something else." he opined. my bulb lit up. it was the perfect business plan: sell ill-designed merchandise and when people come back to get it fixed, sell them some more shoddy products. charlotte from college park ikea

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