Tue 14 Nov 2006
Listening To: Servico Publico : Valete (Footmovin’ Records)
Current Horn Factor :
Quote of The Day
Panzurfaust I love stupid ass people.
Cade You’re so damn conceited.
Today we’re going to discuss what some people have called “a (wallet) draining, antisocial addiction, which effects many people at some stage of their lives”.  It’s especially prevelant among guys and girls in my own age group i.e. around the mid to late twenties. That’s right gang, I’m talking about the very same thing Chuck Palahniuk discusses in some length via the characters of Cornelius & Tyler in Fight Club. The so-called “IKEA Nesting Instinct” 
Personally, I don’t really understand the problem the ‘ole Chuckster has with this supposed addiction. Before I finally found the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with, I used to go out and easily blow $150 on alcohol, cover charges and taxi-fare in one night going out. Now, I blow the same amount of money in one afternoon buying a small dining table and chairs for our apartment.
Is this so bad ? Granted, it means I’m not going out and getting fucked up as often as I used to. Actually I’m not going out and getting fucked up at all anymore, coz I’m trying to save for our wedding as well … but … ummmm … that’s not a problem, riiiight ? I mean the Ikea purchases aren’t a catalyst for the ‘mellowing out’, they’re merely a consequence of it, and mellowing out is a good thing, isn’t it ? Plus … you know … we needed furniture after moving apartments.
I actually used to go to IKEA with my parents a fair bit when I was younger, and we were struggling migrants that had recently moved to Australia. Granted back then (in the 80′s) the furniture you’d get from IKEA wasn’t just cheap, the general build quality was a bit on the nasty side as well. I didn’t realise that until a few years later though, and the Seven Hills store we used to go to had a good play area for kids, so going furniture shopping was always a bit of an adventure for me
Truth be told, I did go off the furniture from there for a few years during my teen years, as the cupboards and other things my dad had put together (or in many cases I’d put together, coz dad was never much of a handyman) in the early years started to weather and show their age. The 80′s IKEA furniture had a particularly nasty habit of losing it’s ‘foil’ finishes, which would peel off and/or dent around the edges, plus the drawers would often start warping. However, my faith started to become redeemed when I went to live in Sweden (the birthplace of IKEA - for the ‘late bloomers’ among you) for a year in ’97-’98 and saw the great stuff they had there.
Nonetheless it took a few more years for the quality range from there to make it out here … in the interim I made do with incredibly nasty (but incredibly cheap) furniture from Op-Shops and the occasional Freedom hand-me-down or upscale retailer Xmas/Birthday present from my folks. Successive moves and flat-shares saw my furniture needs anyway being stripped down to what would fit in one bedroom, until my fiance and I finally moved to this new apartment, free of our old flatmate (whose furniture dominated all the ‘common areas’ in our old place) and ready to decorate just for the two of us.
We knew we’d need furniture, and given the need to save for the wedding, we thought we’d check out IKEA together, and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. Build quality has gone up, and most of the range I remember from Sweden has made it over her now. So now we’ve got a nice ‘Beech Effect’ coffee table, a funky dining table which seats 4, a couple of contemporary (and comfy) chairs to go with the table, a set of stylish placemats & coasters, a groovy/unconventional dark red peanut-shaped study desk, a set of wire drawers also in red to complement said desk, a shoe-rack (OK … it’s from Howards Storage World … but it’s part and parcel of the same instinct I think) … all after only a few trips.
Now we just need some outdoor furniture for the balcony, perhaps some new cutlery coz our current set is looking a bit mismatched, a couple of prints for the study until one of us can be arsed doing some new paintings, perhaps a new couch as we’ve both got couches in storage which are too big …. hmmm …. maybe Chuck’s got a small point somewhere …. 
