Nora loves Ikea. She loves the carts that go in all sorts of directions. She loves the furniture layouts – she liked a certain room layout, found a book, sat on the rug and started reading to herself. She absolutely loves the designs for rooms for kids her size. She didn’t see Smalland of course, since it was a Daddy-daughter event, but I imagine she’d have a ton of fun there.
I was impressed by the quality of the children’s furniture and the cost. First, the last time I went there (a year ago), the children’s stuff was pretty poor quality. This time, they’ve doubled the number of offerings and the build quality is quite impressive. I know a lot of the things there get beat on pretty frequently; I still tried to stress test a changing table and it was incredibly firm.
Options are good. Outside of Babies R Us, the offerings are pretty limited in most places. Walmart hasn’t launched a serious challenge against BRU; if they do, BRU would be competitive.
Ikea in no way shape or form is a replacement for BRU (you can’t buy a crib there, for instance) – but once babies get to the toddler age, there’s quite a bit of Ikea can do to aid parents who don’t want to spend several thousand dollars. I left with a lot of ideas for Nora and future child.
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On the same subject, Ikea has a solid selection of wood toys from their own line. Melissa and Doug are wonderful but can be a little pricey. I picked up a toy train set for Nora that she loved the moment we opened it, and an art easel with a chalk board… which I think will get just as much use by Lisa.
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As we were leaving, Nora told anyone who would listen that ‘the store was all done’. We spent almost two hours there, and as we were making our way out she whined that she wanted to ‘go upstairs’ again. While there, she did manage to ‘test’ every kid bed and bedding they had available. She also noted that she needs lights and a new rug. And an indoor slide.
Silly munchkin. As for that last one, it was so nice that I’m half tempted to get it for her birthday. It’d look great in the basement.
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