IKEA finds

As I mentioned in my last post, I was planning on taking a little trip to IKEA last week.  Well, I finally made it there and found some really great things.  Mostly stuff for the nursery, but also a little something for the recently painted guest bedroom (which I can't wait to show you)!!  In the course of setting up the nursery, we have used the guest bedroom as our landing pad for everything that doesn't have a "place" yet in the nursery.  The car seat, high chair, pack & play, etc., etc. are all just hanging out on the floor in there, so it doesn't look all pretty and blog-worthy just yet.  Maybe once we weed through the piles and piles of presents from the shower this past weekend (which was FABULOUS by the way - thanks Mom, Chris and Mom-in-law and the rest of my friends and family for their generosity.....you guys are TOO MUCH!), we will get more organized with all the baby stuff.  My goal is to have the guest bedroom all set up and ready to go by next week so that we can just focus on the nursery from here on out.  So I will keep you updated on that progress as soon as I get to it!!

But back to IKEA.

After years of shopping here, I have obtained a few rules that keep me sane and relatively focused while I'm in there; (1) do NOT walk through the showroom unless I am looking for furniture (if I even start going through it, I get sucked in by all of the cute room set-ups and get distracted from my ultimate shopping goal), (2) only go there on weeknights, otherwise you will be forever lost in a sea of people and carriages trying to navigate their way through the two-story warehouse maze, and (3) have a list (if I go in there un-armed, I always end up getting things that I don't really need (which is fun sometimes, but costly as well)). 

So, based on my rules, I went in last Thursday night with my list:

(1) silver towel rods for the nursery book slings
(2) two frames for DIY nursery artwork
(3) curtains for the guest bedroom

I stuck to my list pretty well, but I also found these as I was heading towards the checkout line:

Aren't they the cutest little trash bins?  Or even toy bins?  I picked up 1 white, 1 yellow and 1 navy one (since those are the nursery colors).  I will probably only keep 1 or 2 in the nursery, but I couldn't decide which color looked best at the time.  After bringing them home, I'm leaning towards the white and the navy.  The yellow is just a little too bright for me....and if we ever decide to change the accent color in the room, I would like this little trash can to be versatile.  They were $14.99 each (check them out here - Knodd Bin w/ Lid), so I also don't want to spend $45 on little bins until I know that I will use them for something in the room.  I can definitely see myself using one of them next to the changing table/dresser as a diaper pail (since we didn't register for the diaper genie or anything like that), but I'm not sure what I would use the 2nd one for...or where we would put it.  The room is a decent size, but there definitely isn't a lot of unused space left over.  I will have to see them in the room (and maybe post some pictures for your opinion) so that I can decide what to keep and what to return.  And if you can think of a use for the second one, I'm all ears!!

As far as the rest of the shopping trip goes, these guys ended up in my car as well:

Grundtal Towel Rail - $14.99 (I bought two of them,

but I might only do one book sling considering the space issue in the room....TBD)

Ribba Frames - $9.99 (I bought two of these as well for some

fun DIY artwork in the nursery....more on that later) 

Ritva Curtains - $29.99 (I bought two of these too - man, it's like Noah's Ark around here....

for the guest  bedroom).  I have the white ones in most of my other rooms,

but I went with beige this time around since it goes better with the

color scheme in the room (can't wait to show you)!!

So that's it for my shopping adventure.  I managed to make it out of there unharmed and unscathed, but since I have a few returns to make (and potentially more purchases....*ahem* meatballs), I will definitely be back there soon, so I'll update you with that trip as well.  Have any of you guys been to IKEA lately?  Did you find WAAAY to many cute things to walk away from?  Any fun DIY ideas in store for your purchases?  I would love to hear all about it.  And of course, I will be back with updates for you on the guest bedroom, the nursery progress (including my own DIY projects), and some shower details.