My Sunday date with IKEA

I’m writing this to you in a near-comatose state. If you really want to have a blast, go to IKEA and build stuff all day. You’ll hardly be able to move by the time it’s bedtime. And that’s where I am today. The countdown for the arrival of our daughter is on, so I need to take every waking free moment to crush out some work on the nursery. Today was finishing up her closet. While it crushed me, it turned out damn good (IMHO).

I started this project a few weeks ago by putting up the first two enclosures and a few shelves and drawers. But as I was ready to finish up, I measured and noticed we could fit one more big unit in the closet. You know, to maximize the space. Sigh. That idea launched me to IKEA to make a purchase of much more stuff to build. It was a solid 8-9 hour day.

It’s not perfect by any means. There are some unnoticeable errors that only I will know or admit. There’s a stubborn hole where the final screw went in for the custom, recessed poles. So it’s a bit wiggly, but not that noticeable. But outside of that, this is one of my best IKEA projects to date, I’m happy to say. And these shelves were a BEAST! My first run I couldn’t get them in the room. So I had to flip them all over, put them on the side and they BARELY slid in. Truly custom.

When the shelves, drawers, baskets and shoe shelves were in, along with the poles, I wasn’t done just yet. I had to transplant the old chandelier from Bella’s old closet. I’m not great with electrical, but even that seemed to work in my favor today. I had to rig some way to hang the chandelier fixture from the housing (it’s pretty ridiculous), but it worked. Then I slapped on a dimmer. I love dimmers. They make any room much better.

And by dinner time I was done. Now my wife can spend her days filling it up. But if she fills this closet up, we’ll have bigger problems. No infant should have this much stuff. This closet outshines mine by leaps and bounds.

Ah, the things we do for our kids.