Dreaming in Ikea

This weekend, Mauricio and I did a date night at Ikea.  You guys, I LOVE Ikea.  Who doesn't?  So we dropped the kids off at my dad's house and headed an hour north to the only Ikea down this way.  It's worth the drive... for sure. 

While there, we did a lot of walking, a little bit of fighting (seriously), and a lot of dreaming.  We can't afford to get everything we want today... but we have a wish list. 

So what did we actually buy on our trip?  

Lightbulbs, a screen for our bedroom door (it's a french door), legs for our Expedit Shelving Unit and chocolate (of course)! 

Yeah, that's it... really productive.

But, we DID make our wish list.  So here's what we've dreaming about at Ikea:

The Hemnes dresser:  It's $300.  We already have the bed and night tables, so this is the last piece from the bedroom collection that we'd want.  This is the first thing on our wish list because we actually need it.  And I love it.

This is a floor lamp I want for our bedroom.  It's grey and will match nicely with the decor we've got going.  It's only $30, so it's not gonna break the bank!

Ok, let's talk curtains for a minute... this is actually the cause of our Ikea fight.  Curtains are expensive... ugh.  But so necessary!  So here's the real problem... the wall where our bed is going to be has an offset window... it's not centered.  This drives me batty.  So, after MUCH research on the subject, designers usually just frame the bed to make an apperance of a large window... or cover the whole wall with curtains.  This is not ideal for us because it becomes really dusty and with my lung problems, I shouldn't be sleeping around a dust absorber (should anyone?).  So, my idea was to use the Ikea panel curtains behind the bed instead.  It's much thinner than curtains and wont cause dust build up. 

I want to use 4 plain white, with a woven texture, right behind the bed and then the curtain below on the far end of the walls. 

Then these curtains also on the other window, framing the window traditionally.  

And then these pillows, the exact same fabric as the curtains, to tie it all together.  I especially like that it's all stark white, since the rest of the room is dark grey with black furniture.  

What do YOU think???

Eventually we'd like to get this couch, but it's over $1000, so it's gonna have to wait a while.  We love how modern and large this is.  

We'd also like a TV entertainment unit... it's a monster. But I can't find it online to show you, so you'll have to believe me when I say it's awesome!  But, it's like $1600, so it's definitely gonna have to wait.  And we'll need a larger tv to put on it, so yeah, this is major dreaming. 

Now, this desk, I love.  It's thin and long... perfect for ME.  I really want a desk for the living area so I can blog/work/blog while watching the kids play or whatever... This one is only $70, so it's doable.  But Mauricio wants to wait to see if we really have room for it.  Ugh, he's so practical. 

This will be a purchase further down the line, if/when we redo our master bath.  I love this vanity because it too is from the Hemnes collection and would perfectly match our bedroom furniture.  It looks so sleek with a while sink and silver hardware. 

With this medicine cabinet above it.  There is so much storage space inside AND there are mirrors on the inside too.  It's pretty much amazing. 

And I want these containers for our kitchen... I need 4... for rice, flour, sugar and chocolate (Nestle Quick).  This will only be like $40, so I'll be buying it soon.

So, this is our short list... of course, when we're actually there, there are about 100 more things we want.  

The hard part is waiting.  Sometimes I wish we were ok with getting into debt and we could just get a credit card and go nuts... but that wouldn't be very smart or responsible, would it?  So we'll wait.  We'll save.  We'll be boring responsible.  

But in the meantime, I'll be dreaming in Ikea.