Dreaming in Blue and Yellow

This year marks a pretty exciting time for all Denver/ Colorado residents....IKEA's opening!!!

I had NO idea how much progress had been made on the building until I was driving in the South suburbs last weekend- and I almost pulled out my phone to take a picture of it from the highway.  But, that wouldn't be safe.  So below is a picture of the plan for the building.  And it looked to me like all the walls were up already!

I also learned that there is a blog out there that follows the construction as well as great facts about IKEA.  Based on this blog, if the opening is 9/23/11 as expected, only 36 weeks and 2 days!  You better believe I'll spend a good portion of many weekends at this place.  I don't think it's possible for anyone to enter this store and not leave within 1 hour.  There are a lot of house projects on my list that would be made much more modern and inexpensive with this store.  

The blog I linked above also has an interesting post about some of the decorating and designing IKEA has done in subway stations across Paris.  As most of my work relates to transit oriented development around Denver, this is very exciting to me.  I would love nothing more than to be surrounded by some great ideas and products from IKEA while waiting for the light rail.

My love for IKEA began when we purchased our house.  We knew when we purchased it that we would have to re-do the kitchen, as the cabinets were from when the house was built- the 50s, and the space was just so inefficient.  So, I began to look at ideas for cabinets, and quickly learned that for the styles I liked we were going to have to pay double our budget.  Then my Mom and aunts suggested that I looked into IKEA.  I did and I was hooked.  We refinished our kitchen with all IKEA cabinets and appliances, in a style we absolutely love and all within our budget.  They have so many door styles to choose from that everyone would find a style they love here, and their products are great quality.  Some would think that because they are more inexpensive than any other products, they wear down more quickly and don't look as high end.  SO not true!  I have had NO complaints about their quality, and trust me- I'm picky, what I especially like is the drawer and door hinges have this component that make it really difficult to slam the door- so you don't feel like you are wearing down the frame of the cabinets and Adam doesn't make a racket when he pushes a little to hard on the doors (that is when he closes the doors).  

This picture was taken at my first trip to IKEA.  It's in Salt Lake City, and it was something I required be a part of our road trip to California.  As you can tell I was pretty stoked to be there.

So for those of you without an IKEA near you- this is more of a reason to come visit us this Fall!  I'm sure my aunts would enjoy a nice long weekend here.  Or maybe even Easter 2012? (You know who you are :))