Blue and Yellow Experience of IKEA

We admit it, Grenville and I are IKEA “junkies” and we’ve shopped in NJ, CT, PA, MA, and MD stores. We furnished several rooms of the Frog & PenguINN with stuff from IKEA  including accessories.

The name is an acronym  with the letters comprised of the initials of the founder’s name (Ingvar Kamprad) the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home parish (Agunnaryd) in Smaland, South Sweden). Who knew? and now we ALL do!

It’s ALSO the world’s largest furniture retailer (over 300 stores worldwide) with flat pack furniture, accessories, bathroom and kitchen items that are sold in retail stores worldwide.

If you ‘ve never been to IKEA, trust us it’s an experience you really need to have. You can always recognize the store by its bright blue and yellow store colors, just like the flag of Sweden. Once inside, getting around is easy – follow the arrows. They were going to use bread crumbs but some folks didn’t get it and kept eating them and getting lost. Weeks later they kept finding them throughout the store living in various furniture displays.




This Swedish company was founded in 1943, and pioneered flat-pack furniture at affordable prices and  compact styles, assembled by the purchaser (that’s you). In the 1940s, the company sold small home accessories throughout Sweden and expanded to furniture making sold by mail order. In 1963, the first store opened outside of Sweden, adding stores in Denmark and Norway and throughout Europe. US locations opened in 1985. Today, IKEA has a following of customers and has entered the pop culture.
To celebrate a very special occasion (more in tomorrow's postings) we  went on safari to the closest IKEA (College Park, MD) in search of a small wooden storage cube.
NOT only did we get the cube and new bedroom pillows, but we also had breakfast, lunch, and a twist cone – ALL for $5. (Whoops, we ate the cones before taking a picture.)