Ikea, the perfect place for INEXPENSIVE and NEW furniture!

Jeff and I went to the Ikea store in Charlotte on Tuesday and it was the most fun I have ever had in a furniture store! If you have an Ikea within driving distance of you, you have to go! It's like a theme park for designers/decorators. And the best part, they are reasonably priced! If you are looking for new furniture but still don't want to spend a lot of money, this is the place to go. When you go in, you start off with getting a "shopping list"and head up stairs. The shopping list is a piece of paper that you write down the things you like on it as you go through their show room, which is arranged as living spaces. On a side note, one really neat thing was that they had different full houses set up with square footage listed, so you would walk through these and see a bedroom, bathroom, living space, and kitchen and how you can shop for your space. Very cool. Anyways, so you walk through and everything is priced and on the ticket is listed where you will find the item on the warehouse floor and if there are different locations to create the look that they have made. The way they are able to sell their products for such a great price is that you do the shopping by yourself, you get the pieces that you like, and you have to put them together when you get home, even your couch! They come in fairly flat boxes and you assemble it all, from pictures and frames to beds and TV cabinets. I loved it and had so much fun going through the showroom and warehouse. The showroom is upstairs and the warehouse is downstairs. The cool thing to is that you aren't limited. If you find a print that you like, you don't have to put it in the frame that they had it in, you can choose your own!
Another really neat thing about Ikea is that they carry everything, not just furniture. You can buy kitchen and bath cabinets, you can buy counters, you can buy appliances, you can even buy the kitchen sink! And all for very reasonable prices. I also liked how they had people available to help you out, but they weren't hanging over you every where you went.
Overall, this was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go back. I have my eye on a very nice china cabinet that I just need to make sure will fit and work for me. Check them out online if you don't have one nearby at www.ikea.com. You can design your rooms, design your new kitchen, and shop for what you want online. Enjoy!