Flatpack Frenzy

Space... the constant bugbear.

These are my voyages down the aisles of Ikea. My continuing mission : to explore strange new shelves, to seek out new drawers and new storage solutions, to no doubt buy what everyone’s bought before.

You may remember last year I posted about my addiction to flat pack furniture and no.1 sons new bed . Apart from the struggle I had changing the sheets (stechie me!) I'd discovered, whilst dismantling it, that the solid construction of the bed base had reduced airflow through his memory foam mattress, resulting in the formation of mould/mildew (ewww!). Fortunately this wasn't a problem for no.2 son as his mattress was an old spring one and seemed to cope with the limited ventilation. 

When those very springs began to interrupt his sleep, poking him with a relish I find difficult to attribute to an inanimate object but have his assurance was indeed the case ,it became apparent that a new mattress was required. Subtle hints were dropped that he would quite like a 'comfy' one like his brother (okay not so subtle really)

With last years discovery in mind I eventually managed to persuade him to give up his old bed in favour of something more practical, and less likely to become a biological hazard. A new slat based bed was promptly ordered, although I'm afraid my coaxing didn't go as far as getting him back to floor level. Another high sleeper it was then, very similar to this one (I would have taken a picture of his but I finished it quite late and couldn't find the camera. He had 'colonized' it by the following day and I couldn't bring myself to post such a horrific image). 

  

His two chest of drawers fit neatly underneath but with the loss of the integrated wardrobe, shelving and desk there was a distinct lack of storage, many items having to languish on the floor. One shopping trip, two days and a case of screwdriver fatigue later...... 

...two new chest of drawers for his brother (my formula for a happy household: never give to one without giving something, what is not important, to the other. Besides I needed his old drawers in the laundry room)...   

....a mini wardrobe on wheels....

...two small drawer units for all of the various little "things" they usually keep in their pockets(*shudder*)...

...and last by no means least, a shelf unit that should accommodate most of no. 2 sons books, those that until now have been doing rather wondrous impersonations of the leaning tower of Pisa. I'd had to admit defeat by this time ( my arm went in a huff) and the boys actually helped me with its construction, even followed the instructions for a while (leading me to believe it's not genetic, it's learned behaviour!)

So was the mammoth flat pack session a success? As far as having my jigsaw fix for the year goes then yes it was. Did it give them a space for everything so that everything could be in its place? No, of course it didn't. It would appear that teenage boys deem any horizontal surface a suitable storage solution, even if they have to walk around, over or through it. Who knew?!