Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Room Re-Do on a Budget Update

I could have titled this post 'My Trip To Ikea Hell'. Actually it was not that bad, however the Ikea desk/vanity is not yet complete.
In my last post I showed you the Pinterest inspiration for the re-do, you can check out that post here:
mymiddletonchronicles.blogspot.com/bedroom-re-do-on-budget.html

There's a reason they call it Pinterest Perfect. The real life version of that includes a trip to Home Depot, figuring out where to get succulents (Home Depot!) a trip to Ikea, a Youtube video and calls and emails to Ikea.

Yep, Ikea. That's where the project hits a snag. It was easy and fun to cruise the aisles and have some lunch at the mamoth Ikea store that is about an hour from home for us. My daughter just turned 15 and it seems it is all the rage to re-do your bedroom when you hit that milestone. Or maybe it was the back to school thing and seeing all the college kids setting up thier dorms. Re-decorating fever is real.

But back to the strugggles. Let's start with the directions in the HUGE box that contained the Alex drawer system that was to hold up one end of my daughters desk/vanity. Or should I say lack of directions? I'm pretty sure Ikea hired a cave man to draw the most basic of directions and I am pretty sure said cave man is laughing his ass off as he thinks about the unknowing consumers (like me) who are scratching thier heads wondeirng how the heck to assemble this beast.

2 weeks after our attempt at the desk/vanity it is still not done. Not for a lack of effort. Thank you YouTube for having a huge trove of how to videos on assembling Ikea stuff. It still took a lot of brain power and screw turns but we figured it out.
The reason it is still not done is we were missing 13 out of 16 little, tiny wooden dowels. Ugh.

Phone calls, emails and a trip to the hardware store and we still don't have what we need to complete the desk/vanity. But we will in 7-14 business days the snotty customer service rep told me. I killed her with kindness because I did not want our precious wooden dowels to get "lost" in the mail. If I did not have that in the back of my mind I could have reached through the phone and strangled her.
I swear explaining what you need to a customer service rep after waiting on hold for 15 minutes subsequent to trying to solve your issue via email and being told to go to the stores "As Is" section to see if they have what you need because the part # you provided is not found. Ugh again.

Here are some photos of our progress so far. We are close to done! I'd post a pic of the painted bed but it is not made at the moment so you'll have to wait with baited breathe for the next Room Re-Do on a Budget post :)






The succulents look great! We put them in a used up candle jar and a small mason jar.

Bag O Ikea Parts 
Will be complete in 7-14 business days!

Monday, October 2, 2017

News - Monday Quote

Typically on a Monday I post an inspiring quote for the week. Not today. The news from Las Vegas is sinking in. I heard it on the radio with 3 kids in the car, 1 was my own daughter and the other 2 are carpool buddies.

We shut the radio off and I assured them of the safety of thier school.
Sending my thoughts and prayers to Las Vegas victims, families, first responders and to our country. This should not be happening here.

Photo by Natalie Collins on Unsplash