dining room chairs, finally!

So I have finally found (and bought) dining room chairs. After over two years of the Ikea plastic folding chairs I will finally have proper dining room chairs.

I have eyed off these Freedom dining room chairs for quite some time now, but at $99 each, I would be spending at least $400 for a set of 4, and I just couldn’t part with that much at once.

After months of intermittent searching on ebay I finally came across (and won) a listing for five of these babies! I will probably end up buying an extra chair to make it a round six, but for $150 for the five all up I am more than happy to spend that extra $99 for just one more chair.  Hopefully they will suit my dining room table (another ebay find!)

new ikea catalogue – who else is excited?

If I could live in one catalogue it would definitely be the Ikea catalogue – every year I have awaited its release (even before I had the money to even afford their meatballs) and drooled over its pages. Now that I have an actual home to fill with furniture its release is even more anticipated – I even envisage that once I have the funds to move past the Ikea stage of my life I will still quietly get excited when I see its new release.

Now unfortunately, where I live, I don’t see to get the mail drop of catalogues that has begun – and you can’t order a catalogue until after this is complete – so for now I have had to be content with flicking the online pages on the Ikea website (available here if you’re wondering).

On my first few looks (oh yes there will be a few readings) here are the pieces/looks that have stood out for me:

Have you received your catalogue? Any stand outs?

Bemz swatches

I just received my Bemz swatches in the post – they are for my Lillberg chairs as discussed here. Completely forgot they were coming.

I think the chenille Graphite Grey is my favourite so far (the very back swatch) – it is really soft to touch and the dark grey would hide little marks well. You can order five swatches for free from their website – so if you are looking to recover anything Ikea I would highly recommend them – the postage took a while, but it is coming all the way from Sweden!

comfy additions

I have had two comfy additions to my home recently – I scored these two armchairs from eBay:

 

They are originally from Ikea, however Ikea doesn’t make them any more. They are in great condition, however I am thinking about buying new seat covers (you can get new seat covers for Ikea sofas and armchairs here). Maybe in a red – or grey? Still deciding. But either way I now have a fully functioning lounge room (well apart from not having a tv).

purchase tidbits

I finally got round to snapping my purchases from the weekend:

the new additions to my bedside table – courtesy of Ikea

from a far they don’t look too much like fake flowers. I love the pop of colour they add, without the upkeep of real flowers.

I discovered Colette Accessories at Northlands on Sunday, they had an amazing range (so cheap as well!), I had to restrain myself to the following:

I am headed back to Northlands tomorrow for its VIP night tomorrow – hopefully I’ll be able to snatch some bargains – I’ll report back!

my new baby and an outfit

So on the weekend I bit the bullet and purchased a new iMac! I went to the Apple Store in Doncaster which I highly recommend, as the staff were very friendly and helpful – however I don’t recommend heading to Doncaster after it opens at 9 – it took me over 25 minutes to get a park! Insane! Anyway, I walked out with a new computer and spent most of the weekend playing on it. Yesterday afternoon I headed out to Ikea to get a desk for my new comp, as it was sitting on my bedside table which made for some awkward sitting positions. I have had the desk in mind for many weeks now and had been checking the Ikea website for availability religiously – and before I headed out yesterday it was saying there were over 20 units in stock - perfect! After meandering through the Ikea showroom (I definitely recommend going on a weeknight so quiet!) I went to pick up the desk in the warehouse section but there were none in stock! I ummed and ahhed about choosing another colour, and finally settled on getting the white/birch instead of the white and was heading out the exit but I quickly popped into the As Is section – luckily I did because there was my desk, the right colour, with $50 off! It had a few cosmetic marks on the desk top, but nothing glaringly obvious so I popped it on the trolley and it is now sitting proudly in my bedroom.

Also – just today’s outfit. Melbourne is getting very cold very fast, so had to rug up this morning:

Target trench, misc. scarf, kookai long sleeve top, cue black pants, shoe show ballet flats (notice the quilt on my bed – was too chilly to sleep without it last night!)

ikea, why must you tease me so.

So it seems everything I currently want from Ikea is not in stock – boo! I am not sure quite how accurate their stock counter is, but since it’s at least a 40 minute drive from my house, it’s too risky to chance it. Hopefully in the new year (or at least after Christmas) some of their stock will be replenished and I can buy:

ostlig flower pots - to hang on my fence outside. I have decided with such a small deck I need to lift the plants off the ground – also I need to get all my pots matching, it’s currently a bad mish mash of different pots (I never seem to be able to do the eclectic look well, it always ends up looking untidy)

tarno chair - to match the outdoor table I bought a few weeks back. I have since painted the table red, and would love to include two of these chairs with it – maybe in red, or another bright colour.

Also my bedside tables fall in this category – but you’ve seen enough photos of those! Some things that are in stock that I’d like to get my hands on:

gilbert chair - for my dining room

norrora dishes – would be perfect to hold those loose elastics and bobby pins.

I am going to try to hold out until after Christmas….let’s see if that happens.

bedside table drama

So as a part of my bedroom re-do I was wanting to buy new bedside tables. I had myself set on the Ikea Bekvam stool – with a splash of white paint:

However for over a month now they have been out of stock with no expected delivery date! Anyone who knows my patience levels knows I am not one to wait – so I have been searching other options. One that has sprung to mind is the Ikea Rast bedside table:

Not sure how I would paint, or even use it yet. I could potentially fill the middle section with pretty boxes, or even a fabric cover, or maybe a door type apparatus. Either way, if those Bekvam stools don’t get in soon, I may have to wonder over to the Rast!

mirror mirror on the wall

After a productive Ikea shopping trip my hallway now has mirrors!

dining room chairs

so now that I have picked up my ebay table (well phil brought him home last night) I am beginning to think about what chairs will go with the table. I haven’t refinished the table yet but I’d like to have an idea of what chairs will be going with it. I am currently wrestling with the following options:

You might be able to tell that I am either going for a white or clear chair….