Ah it’s that time of year when the summer sun sheds light into our dismal homes and makes us realize that we need to reorganize, regroup, and redecorate. IKEA is aware of this summertime pull toward re-energizing our lives and that is why their catalog makes its way into our mailboxes at this time of year filled with glossy pages of shiny hope.

Sadly, I succumbed to the catalog this year. A recent binge of HGTV watching has been giving me inspiration and a strong desire to make my home more of a home. The catalog didn’t even need to come to me via snail mail this year; I received a text from IKEA that the catalog was available via an app on my iPhone. I downloaded the app and flipped through the pages. I bookmarked possibilities, and thus, I began to fantasize… about IKEA.

What was I thinking? How could this happen? Why would I dream of mass-produced furniture made of cheap materials? But that shiny hope had weaseled into my mind and I planned a trip to the local store. I invited my sister-in-law, Kate, who agreed with the same excitement. The catalog had gotten to her too! On the night of our planned sojourn, Kate had to cancel and we postponed our trip. I should have taken that as a sign. But nevermind an obstacle, two days later we were in the store.

I kept poor Kate trapped for hours while I scoured for the items I had seen. Some furniture was too disappointing to consider purchasing, but some I was determined to buy. We stacked our carts carefully in the warehouse and then paid for our wares. We packed the tiny 2-seater Honda Insight full of boxes and of course some of those yummy raspberry cream sandwich cookies (addictive rascals). We made it home and unloaded the heavy particle board-filled boxes.

Now I could begin to reveal my great room’s true potential. Now I could see my work space clean and organized with my new Vika Veine desktop. Now… crap! The desk came with the wrong screws for attaching the struts (yes my desk has hydraulics). Okay, well I’ll just put together the rest. Darn! Some scratches, and what??? The laminate coating is peeling off near the hinge. I already began to feel my confidence in this purchase fading away. How could I have bought something of this quality? I try to ignore the sinking feeling and instead begin to attach the Vika Runtorp legs. I place each leg and start each screw in its hole. I then grab a screw driver and excitedly start to work a screw in… only it’s very difficult. I have to push really hard and it’s almost impossible to turn, but I’m almost there. I’m… almost… GAH!!! What? The screw head ripped right off of the screw! The screw is stuck in the hole! It’s below the surface of the wood. I can’t use pliers to get that out. What. The. Hell.

Finis. No more. Done with IKEA. I took out all of the screws and threw them away, save one to take to the store to find NOT CHEAP hardware. Seriously, how does this happen? I know the furniture is relatively cheap, but it isn’t that inexpensive when it comes time to pay.

So 4 days later with new screws from Fred Meyer, I finally have a desk that is standing up on its legs. I still have to attach the struts, but I’m feeling better about the whole mess. Definitely a SPLAT. Although, I did find some great info on painting laminate today, so I think I’ll be fixing those scratches and peeling laminate to make the desk I like into something I love. IKEA furniture might suck and I may only stick to sandwich cookies and textiles in the future, but I am happy to have my desk together.

In other IKEA misadventures, I also bought a Kvartal curtain track and some Sanda tracks and lighting, so we’ll see how those go up and if they’re as cheaply made. *sigh* I certainly hope not.