In case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s a new IKEA store in Charlotte. I’ve been dying to go, but didn’t want to make the trip on a weekend because I’ve heard they tend to be very crowded. And weekdays were out because there’s no way we could get down there, spend the time we’d like to really look around, and get back in time to pick up my oldest son from school. But he’s on intersession right now and I was bound and determined to get down there one day! After a lot of not-so-subtle hinting, my husband agreed to go last Thursday. So we got up, got ready, and hit the road. It took about 2 hours to get there, not counting that stop in Salisbury for lunch.
When we got there, we drove into the parking lot and found their “family friendly” parking area. It’s a small, separate lot right next to the building. No crossing traffic lanes with little ones in tow! I think this is a great idea and wish more stores did it. Once we got in, we dropped my oldest son off at their supervised play area. I would have left my 2 year old also, but the kids have to be potty trained. Since he’s not, he came with us. We took the elevator up and entered furniture heaven!
I was impressed with the quality. This is not your typical assemble it yourself furniture. It’s not necessarily on par with a big furniture store, but neither are the prices! Everything has a warranty that will last you long enough to get bored and want new furniture. At these prices, you can afford to refresh your room every 10 years or so. And it’s not just furniture…they have mattresses, kitchen cabinets, bathroom fixtures, appliances, bedding, towels, art, dishes, cookware, and other decorating accessories. You could outfit your entire house there!
My husband is a furniture snob. He has built furniture for us and uses only top quality wood and is extremely meticulous about appearance. He doesn’t care for particle board furniture or anything that’s contemporary so I expected him to hate it all, but he didn’t. He was impressed with the quality of the kitchen cabinets and said that every room type had something he liked the look of. We picked out a lot of things we’d buy if only we had the money…an Ektorp sofa and chairs, the Hemnes bedroom series, the Adel kitchen cabinets in medium brown, and much, much more.
They also have a restaurant, which we did not get a chance to try. However, there’s a small food market downstairs after you check out. We bought a couple of drinks and some snacks. All at reasonable prices and very yummy. I wish we could have tried the Swedish meatballs, but we just weren’t there at a meal time and I couldn’t justify buying them just to say I had some. I will time things much better the next time we go so we can have a meal there.
It’s very family friendly, which I have learned is a big plus when it’s time to go shopping with 3 kids. They had a baby care room where I was able to change diapers and nurse privately in addition to the parking and supervised play area. Nobody batted an eye at them when they wanted to explore the various room settings on a 2nd trip through the store. They had a lot of fun and we enjoyed it more because of that.
Overall, we were impressed and definitely plan to go back someday when we have some money!
