Ikea Boy

I have to admit living in the hinter lands of the twin cities my first reference to Ikea was when the film of Palahniuk's Fight Club first came out in '99. Right away I knew if Ikea was enough to symbolize one of Chuck's central themes there was something there.That Palahniuk thought Ikea a negative influence on contemporary society was all the impetus I needed. I immediately signed up to receive their catalog.

This weekend was the first time I actually went to the large Ikea near the Mall of America. I have recently come under the vague notion that I would like to sell my hovel in South Minneapolis and move to the promised land in Golden Valley. Toward that end some lighting would help the MLS photos so a trip to Ikea came about.

Ever wonder why the stuff looks so nice in the Ikea show room and once you get it home and assembled looks like crap in your place? It's the lighting. Look at the show rooms, some of them have almost twenty specific light sources. How many does your room have, two? three?

So I'm at Ikea to buy a table lamp. A nice little lamp caught my eye that wasn't in the catalog. Buy it, take it home and it doesn't work. Take it back and buy another but this one has weird manufacturing marks (although it does work). So I take this one back also. Returns are pretty easy which is good because Ikea's quality control is almost nonexistent. Eventually I have a lamp that works and looks nice.

Here's a tip the next time you go to Ikea. Pick up a bag of the frozen Swedish meatballs, they're really good.