ikea, i love you, why do you treat me so bad?

You know it's bad when you're at the door, waiting for the Ikea delivery person to climb the stairs to your apartment, and you look around your living room and suddenly think, "Oh my god, there's too much Ikea in this room. This is just embarassing. What can I hide from the Ikea guy?" Seriously, I did this. However I did manage to resist the urge to throw the coffee table, bookshelf, carpet, curtains, plant pot or plant (dear god) into the other room.

This behaviour is similar to the fact that, on occasion, I've avoided going into a particular clothing store beause I'm wearing something from that store. What is that? It's like I don't want the store employees to assume that I'll buy the clothes there. Or that I like their clothes too much? That I only shop there? Who knows. Am I the only person who does this?

Anyway, back to the story. The story is: I have a new couch. I assembled it myself. That was fun - and surprisingly easy, too, for such a big (and plush) item. The NON-fun part was that Ikea initially "forgot" to deliver some key parts of the couch - you know, stuff like arms and legs - and it took them just over 3 weeks, a kazillion phone calls, and even more broken promises on their part to get it all sorted out. The whole experience was maddening: don't tell me you're going to call, and then not call! And then deny you said you'd call! Yeesh. But now (after much gnashing of teeth) I have a couch, and it's great. And comfy. Which is great, too.

Anyway, if you love Ikea too much, or if you hate it, or if you hate to love it, or love to hate it (I think I qualify for all four categories right now!), check out Ikea Hacker. This blog shows how people have decorated, improved or otherwise altered their Ikea purchases. Everything from turning a potholder into pin-hole camera to using baskets for lampshades to using the assembly instructions as a colouring book (presumably after you've used it to figure out where all the screws go). Get inpired and submit your own ideas. But my couch is staying as is, thank you very much.