First time for IKEA

I finally went to an IKEA store! I'm so super late jumping on this band wagon and after hearing everyone talk about IKEA the way they do, I now understand why.
My goodness I can tell you that if I wasn’t on time restrictions and car space limitations then I would have easily spent a small fortune that could have had me as a shareholder of IKEA.

Niah & I ventured out to the IKEA Richmond location here in Melbourne which is located on Victoria St/Burnley St. 

Parking is free within the first 4 hours of being at the store which I would think is ample and enough timing for every IKEA shopper to park free unless you were buy one of everything or picking up every item within IKEA to look at. 

At first starting off I was a little overwhelmed with how everything is set out and how you can easily get to what you want without having to walk the whole store to get to it. The information map was just too confusing for me and I was having to ask several staff members for directions and questioning on how things work at IKEA which they were all lovely and helped me out. Best thing to remember to follow the arrows and they’ll lead you on to where you need to be and to the exits.

Such spectacular storage solutions at IKEA, you can see exactly how their products would look as everything is put up into a real scene room of what it would reflect in appearance in your home.

Whilst you are shopping around on the main floors you will need to take note of the large items red tag numbers which will give you an item code, aisle number and product position number which you then head into their warehouse before check outs, where you will find and collect the items you have taken note of.

I found taking photos on my smart phone was the easiest way for me to juggle a baby on the hip and ensure I had correct information come warehouse collection time. If I had taken a paper and pen it would have made my trip that much harder and I’m sure Niah would have loved to have ripped the paper on me.

This trip to IKEA was for a Christmas present of Niah’s which she has luckily already received as Mummy couldn’t wait until Christmas time to give her.

Niah has this obsession with wanting to be sitting at the dinner table and would always spend all her time going around and sitting on all the chairs at play centres, childcare or of a friends table and chair set, so it was time to get her, her own table and chairs to be able to sit at a table more her size. The kids table and chairs will come in hand for all those crafty activities that we are starting to experience and will become more of a regular things to happen in this household with our fast growing little girl.

We purchased the Mammut circular table (RRP $59) and two pink Mammut chairs (RRP $15). I decided that two chairs would be appropriate for now and then we will purchase more to fill the table at a later stage when needed.

The Mammut circular table would easily fit five chairs around it comfortably.

Niah with her dolly

The pastel pale colours of baby blue, baby pink and pale green are the perfect colour palette to mix and match at the table. We took home the green table and pink chairs.

The table and chairs were easy to put up with tools needed.

Flatpack on trolley

Head Builder supervising

The larger items are all flat packed, DIY products which come with instructions in the product or you can head to their website online, find the item you purchased or intend to purchase and can download a copy of their instructions via a pdf file.

These items really make it easy for those who aren’t builder career minded people; as it’s easy for anyone to understand and put up.

Once you have completed your shopping you can take advantage of their small food store to purchase groceries or buy hot food to go at loose change prices.

After coming out of the IKEA doors you there is a trolley minding area with a IKEA staff member who will give you a ticket and hold your trolley in the parking bays just out of the doors so you can go get your car without the hassle of taking everything to the car. What a hassle free way to deal with everything!

IKEA I will be back; with an empty car next time around!