Furnishing the Kangqiao Ban Dao House… Adventures in IKEA

First let me start by saying that going to IKEA is never a quick affair. It’s always an hours-long process that leaves us exhausted, with aching backs from walking on those concrete floors, and leaving the store carrying bags that are far too full and heavy. Don’t get me wrong, we actually really like going to IKEA. We just haven’t found a way to do it that doesn’t leave us completely and totally wiped out.

Our experience last night, as well as a little sneak peek at some of our new furniture…

Armed with our furniture shopping list (written on a restaurant cocktail napkin from a few nights earlier, nonetheless), we enter IKEA around 6:30 pm. Moving swiftly into the sofa section, we descend upon the couch we picked out last May, but then discover that it no longer comes in the pale tan color of our choice. The alternatives were a very pale cream, bordering on white, or a pleasant oatmeal color with a weird texture. We decide to widen the search and begin to look around. We find another 3 seat option- it has a skirt, which I am not thrilled about, but it’s super comfy and comes in a really lovely pale tan color. Okay, first decision made. Check.

It’s hiding back there in the middle.

I then pull out my iphone to photograph the tag information and noticed the “back in stock soon” sticker. Argh. After checking with the clerk and learning that it could be 2-3 months before it is back in stock, the search resumes. This time we go back to our original couch choice and reassess the fabric options. We decide upon the pale cream, hoping we’re not totally crazy, but justifying the choice based upon the fact that our cats will not be downstairs and the room really needs some lighter accents. So, first sofa with the cream fabric. Done. Check.

(here’s the sofa, shown in red)

Next we move onto the sleeper sofa for our guest room. We spot this lovely grey model and like it instantly. There was another model, in dark taupe, that also caught our eye, but with a much lower price tag and many pieces of furniture left to buy we decide that the grey model suits us just fine. Check.

I find another clerk who prints up the receipts for both sofas, and we’re off to check out coffee tables and side boards. We see several coffee table options, but decide not to purchase any just yet, as we’ll have a better idea of the size we’ll need once the larger furniture is in place. We also find a potential side board for our living room, IF we decide to attempt disassembling the giant wall unit and moving it upstairs.

Next we come upon the simple white sideboard for our bedroom next. Check.

Then we see a TV console we really like and will consider for the guest room if we either a.) do not move the giant wall unit in there, or b.) accidentally destroy the giant wall unit in the process of disassembling, moving, and reassembling it.

Now onto the dining table. We select the exact same one we had in Dubai. Again, for purposes of conserving space, we choose the narrower model. We select our lovely accompanying chairs, groan a little about their seemingly high price, but move ahead with our decision knowing it won’t matter in the long run. Check. Check.

Next, bar stools. They match the dining chairs. Groan again about the seemingly high prices (in relation to other IKEA items, not in general), but push forward because we love them. Check.

And now we find ourselves in the office section and I eagerly seek out the desk I’ve been drooling over for a few months. Why the obsession? I’m really not sure, as it’s nothing more than a narrow table, but for some strange reason I have been SO excited to get our little art room/office space set up. I find the desk, but its no longer set up in the arrangement I was wanting, so I have to search for the accompanying set of drawers. I find them and take photos of all the desk info. Check. Next, desk chairs. We remember the chairs we liked in May, so the decision is simple. Check. Check.

Wandering some more, we stumble upon the bedroom furniture and locate the white dresser we want for Isla’s changing table, do the happy dance that it’s not out of stock, and snap a photo of the information. We briefly become sidetracked by an unfinished wooden 6-drawer dresser and toss around ideas of painting it aqua or peach, but decide we have enough projects, and move forward with the white dresser. Check.

We move into the children’s section, noting that it has been completely rearranged, so slow our pace to meander and explore a bit. Here we discover a couple of tall dresser options that catch our attention. The one we like the most has double doors and a shelving unit that would be perfect for books, but it only comes in green. Bummer. The other one we like matches the dresser we selected for Isla’s changing table exactly. We decide to think about it, snap a picture, and move along.

We come to the cribs, cannot figure out where the mattresses are, and then realize they’re in the self service section, so move from model to model, pushing, poking, prodding them in an attempt to find the most comfy model for our baby girl. I find one I like, snap a pic of the details. Check. (Note that I later forget to pick up the mattress and will need to return to get it later.)

Now we’re on the hunt for changing pads. Again, all we see are floor models, and upon closer inspection realize they’re all inflatable. I don’t like this at all and resolve to order one online and have my mom bring it in October.

Hurrying our pace, we find ourselves in the Marketplace, and we move through this sprawling section as quickly as possible, stopping only to pick up a few hand towels, new kitchen mat, baskets for our bedroom sideboard… all really exciting stuff ;). Hey, is that IKEA tupperware? It seems pretty sturdy. Want to try it out? Sure. Check. Check. Check. Check.

We slow our pace in the rug section and look for rugs for our living room, family room and Isla’s nursery. I have always been drawn to this striped beauty, and decide that it will likely be a great choice for our living room, especially with the cream couch and the black wood finishes of our other pieces.

We decide to wait on purchasing the rug until we get the larger furniture in place, but I have a feeling it will be coming home with us after our next IKEA trip (you know, for the mattress I forgot). I found another rug, a block print of taupes, greens and aquas that has piqued my interest for the family room… we’ll have to marinate on that one for a little bit. No luck for Isla’s room.

In the lighting section, however, we find several white lantern options for the nursery, and of course that wonderful dandelion puffball that everyone sees and immediately associates with IKEA. I’d totally go for that one, but worry it would be too big for Isla’s room. More to mull over, so we snapped some photos for reference and moved along.

Found some concrete nails in the photo section and eyed this giant aqua mirror for the gazillionth time.

It may need to come take up residence in our living room.

Taking deep breaths we descended into the furniture self-service warehouse. First stop, the white sideboard for our room. We reach the appropriate section. There are none left. Argh.

Moving on to the dining chairs. We find them, but there are only 4, not the 6 we had hoped for. We take the 4, and then go in search of the dining table, and, what luck! We get the last one left. Isaac lugs the table boxes onto the flatbed cart, and we move over a few aisles to collect the bar stools, only to find that like the sideboard, none remain. Double argh. I decide to seek an employee for help. He checks his computer and informs us that the bar stools are out of stock and should be back in 2-3 weeks. Not the end of the world, but we’re curious if that timeline is accurate… we shall see. He then discovers a few more dining chairs hidden behind some cardboard, so we are up to our desired 6. Hooray! Next as we set out to search for the white sideboard, we happen upon a random pile of boxes that contained the very item we were seeking. Hooray again!

The next aisle we visit is home to the white dresser we plan to use as Isla’s changing table, only surprise, surprise, there are no more in stock. I track down the same English speaking employee, he again checks his computer, and informs me there are no more in stock and it doesn’t appear the store has any plan to reorder more. Ugh. Seriously?! I ask if they’ll sell us the floor model, and in that all-too-familiar hesitant “I don’t really know the answer so I’m just going to say no” response we’ve come to expect here, he tells me no. So, we may be painting that unfinished dresser after all… I may try asking for the floor model again if its still there our next trip… ’cause we’re definitely going to have to come back for items now.

Onto the art room stuff. Luckily we find the desk, legs and the drawers with no real problems. Chairs were simple enough to find too. Small victories. We’ll take ’em!

I decide we should check the as-is section just to see if they have any of the items (particularly the dresser) that we are missing. No dresser, but they do have our exact dining table, only with a tiny scratch that can easily be camouflaged à la sharpie, for 500 RMB less. Done and done. Next we find the same desk drawers for 2/3 of the price, only they are white. For the savings, the color doesn’t matter. Isaac retrieves a third flatbed to load up the as-is furniture, and I chase down the poor IKEA employee yet again for another question that I can no longer remember.

We then have to return the full priced desk drawers to their former warehouse home. Afterwards, we realize the table was from aisle 3 (we are currently on 37) and in our exhausted, aching-feet-and-back state, decide that we’re buying enough items to justify off-loading it and leaving it for an employee to put back… let’s hope karma doesn’t come to bite us for that.

So, we are ready to check out. I open my purse to get the sofa print outs necessary for purchase, and they are no where to be found. Panicked, I check my pockets. Not there either! ARGH! ARGH! ARGH! For the last time of the evening I hunt down that poor IKEA employee, who must be dreading me, and ask if he can help me reprint them. He kindly obliges. I begin to look through my phone photo documentation of the furniture and wouldn’t you know the ONLY TWO items I didn’t take close up tag (and therefore, item number) photos of were the couches! It could not get more ridiculous than this. “Do you remember the names of the couches?” The employee patiently asks. Of course not. I remember that one starts and ends with k, but that’s as far as I get. We decide to check a computer kiosk nearby and find the sofa. But of course, do you think we can figure out the correct fabric using the online photo? Of course not. “Maybe I should just go back upstairs to the sofa section and have them reprint the pages for me.” I suggest. The weary IKEA employee manages a smile and nods… I can see the relief spread across his face. Isaac then decides to embark on one last effort to find the papers on the floors of the aisles we’ve been walking through- perhaps I dropped them? I join him on the quest and then vaguely remember setting them down on some boxes. I waddle back to said spot as quickly as I can in my pregnant, achy, exhausted state, and there they were. Hallelujah!

Now we are really ready to check out. Of course I choose a line in which the shopper in front of us chose an un-marked item, so we wait for what feels like hours for the price check. Once checked out we condense all our goods to two flatbed carts, buy ourselves a couple of soft serve cones as rewards for surviving this whole ordeal, and make our way to the delivery/assembly counter. Again, we wait in line. I must mention it is now around 10:45pm. Once it’s our turn we fill out the paperwork and none of the employees act as if they can speak any English. I think again about how poor our Mandarin is and that we MUST work on it! Finally someone comes out to help and after 10 minutes of back and forth about the delivery date and time, we finally settle upon a Saturday delivery and Sunday assembly! Whew!

Poor Isaac, lugging our two heavy bags of non-furniture goods, and I then make our way downstairs to find the taxi line empty. Not a vehicle to be found. So, we walk across the parking lot and down to the main road. Luckily a taxi comes by right away, and we collapse into the back seat, absolutely beat… but not too tired to wonder whether or not our delivery will come as planned on Saturday. TIC (this is China), after all. We shall see… =)