IKEA Day!

My journey today was a short one. Just 45 minutes south of Växjö, where Hollene lives, is the little town of Almhult - where the IKEA business started way back in 1943. It was a mail-order business to begin with 5 years later started to sell furniture. The original store was opened in 1958. Recently a new larger store was built in Almhult, and the original store became a museum in June of 2016.

So Hollene and I went off to see this new museum. It tells the history of the company and its founder as well as showing examples of its room setups and catalogues through the decades. There was an exhibit showing how different people used the Billy bookcase to display their collections, which I found fascinating. They also showed the social history of how the home and the role of women has changed throughout history, much of it driven by specific policies enacted by the Swedish government. There was a temporary interactive exhibit on textiles that was fascinating and fun. The museum store was interesting - they had some items from the main store but some definite unique items (or colours) only available at the museum store, including the FRAKTA bag in different colours!

We ate at the museum restaurant and were surprised that only meatballs were on the menu - but 5 different kinds. Our initial disappointment was ill-founded - our food was beautifully presented, delicious and a real upgrade from the normal (though delicious) food available in the stores.

After lunch we went to the actual store and browsed and bought just a few things. I dropped Hollene off at the train for her to get home and I went back to the museum to look at a few things I'd missed. If you've got your 2017 catalogue already, you'll recognise the front cover in the middle of my collage - with me doing a photobomb!

Just in case I didn't get enough of IKEA today, I checked into the IKEA Hotel this evening, just across the parking lot from the museum. I stayed in their very comfortable but tiny 'cabin room' - 4 metres square. Everything in the whole hotel was decked out with IKEA furniture and merchandise, inside and out. All very comfortable - a bit like eating and lounging in a store showroom!

A very enjoyable day in IKEA-land!