Rusted Sky

My parents like white French Provincial. (Rather, my mother did, and Father didn't much care.) Me? I dislike it. I've not been much of a furniture buff - before I got married my idea of furniture was a 3/4th inch sheet of plywood to hold a mattress, a 'cheap' couch that cost way too much, and sufficient bookcases to hold everything. Add in a cheap chest of drawers, a dining room table and some chairs (again, overpriced and low-quality) and the ensemble was complete. If you wanted an upgrade, you swapped out block and board bookcases for Sauder self-assembled one from Office Depot. Ah, class - what luxury!

Of course, I'm a guy. Furniture = expensive, and the idea of actually coordinating furnishings... well, when the primary desire is for low cost, you don't worry about whether the pieces match. Especially if there's not much money to spare after the basics of food, rent, car expenses and the like are satisfied.

But over the years, being steadily employed and married to a woman who has a good sense of style and taste which pretty much matches my own (no way she'd ever go for white French Provincial without a severe case of dane brammage - she prefers simpler stuff like Mission style, which I like) we've been able to furnish the house pretty comfortably.

Of course, that was before the IKEA store opened here in Atlanta.

I like browsing through that place. (Yes, I know, I'm a guy - I'm not supposed to like something like that.) Primarily, I like the styling, which in a lot of cases could best be described as well-designed, attractively functional minimalist. For instance - take the IKEA LAXVIK shelving system. It's pretty minimal - comes in small packages, made of powder-coated steel and glass, puts together easily... and it fits nicely up in my room. (For details and pictures of THAT, though not nearly so... 'lived in' as it is now, (Yeah, cluttered. I'll admit it.) go here.) Anyway, there were some pipe and flange shelves pulling out of the wall, so I replaced them. However - the silver paper I used to cover the holes didn't look good, and the bins I'd had on the shelves didn't look so good on the Laxvik unit. Time to change the look.

So down to Ikea again. Got some mirror tiles, and put those up in place - it looks pretty sharp. They also had an interesting clock that I like... but it's got about the same accuracy as a chronometer I used a long time back in a certain job - you can count on it gaining 10 minutes a day. And the darn thing isn't adjustable... Oh, well. I can either return it, or get one that might be a bit more accurate... but I digress.

To get at the wall, I tried moving the shelf assembly. And I found out the one real problem that I hadn't anticipated - even after putting gliders under the legs of the unit to move it across the carpet.

The unit has pretty much zip in the range of lateral strength. It does a good job up and down - I figure I could load probably 1000 lbs on it easy if I didn't mind it punching a hole in the carpet... (the feet are, I think, less than a square inch in area. You really don't want to concentrate much stress on an inexpensive carpet...) but when I tried to slide it, the dang thing twisted pretty badly.

Ikea makes good furniture - but it's not sturdy stuff. It looks good. It goes together easily. But once it's in place, it needs to STAY in place. This isn't heavy-duty stuff - it's essentially disposable after a few years, though durable enough if you don't mind just leaving it alone.

However, each rule seems to have exceptions. The Lerberg shelves are pretty solid - but I still wouldn't want to put much torque on them. Perhaps my expectations are unrealistic...

Well, I could always go back to wood crates. The classic look... wood never goes out of style.

Nah. Crates are expected when you're in your 20s and into your 30s. Above that? Nah.

I guess I'll stay with Ikea furniture...

J.