Sunday was my first trip to an Ikea store ever.

I never really understood what the big deal with Ikea was.  Everyone I talked to who’d been there would start salivating when I talked about Ikea, barely able to contain their feelings about how awesome it is.  My uncle (and many, many others) swears by the meatballs.  I’ve got friends who would only ever shop at Ikea (and no other stores, ever) if they had that option.  I just never got it.

Sunday, Jenn and I packed up and, with our friends Angela and Keaka, headed to the Portland Ikea store.  I went with a skeptical mindset, fully expecting to be underwhelmed.

Ikea freaking rocks.

Ikea is sort of like… well, if General Electric or Mitsubishi decided to open a store that just sold everything they made, that’s what Ikea is.  They sell everything.  Batteries.  Furniture.  Art.  Food.  Toys.  Seriously, it’s just overwhelming.  Angela told us she usually allocates about three hours to an Ikea trip and I can see why - you can’t actually make it through the place in much under two.  We took two and a half hours.

I didn’t expect to buy anything.  I’ve always seen the catalog and not been really much interested in anything.  I ended up purchasing a chair, an ottoman, a rug, and some artwork for our front room.  All put together, it’s got a really nice lounge sort of feel to it, and it’s nice to get some furniture in that room.  We’ve been in the house for a few years now and have been looking for the right stuff.  I think a key factor here was price - we got all that for less than $750.  Not bad.

Of course, less than 24 hours went by before Jenn’s cat peed on the ottoman and the rug.  Maybe the low cost paid off.  (As far as I can tell, the stains came out, but still.  Come on.)

We also had the obligatory meatball lunch in the cafe there and I liked it.  I’m not all crazy over the meatballs, but they’re pretty decent.  I also discovered that I like lingonberry and several of the desserts there.

So I’m an Ikea convert.  I finally get it.  I don’t know that I’ll have a Pavlovian response or anything, but if someone says they want to venture out to Ikea, I’ll go.  As long as we have at least three hours to kill.