I am Tyler Durden's Chest of Drawers

The Ikea-fication of our home continues apace with the purchase last night of two hefty chests of drawers. I'm going to come right out and admit that I'm becoming an anabashed fan of the Ikea way of doing things. I'm reminded of the guy from Fight Club:

"And I wasn't the only slave to my nesting instinct.  The people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue... 

You buy furniture.  You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life.  Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled.  Then the right set of dishes.  Then the perfect bed.  The drapes.  The rug.  Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you."

(Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club, Chapter 5)

In no particular order, some thoughts inspired by last night's visit to Ikea-land:

- The layout of the Ikea showroom is a seriously impressive piece of interior design. As I stroll through the carefully series of living space mock-ups I'm reminded of childhood visits to Lego World expos and, more obliquely, of the elf toy factory from "Santa Claus: The Movie" (no coincidence, perhaps, that these two also have their origins in Nordic culture?). 

- I marvel at the high-tech robot-arm-driven quality control devices that are supposedly used to simulate ten years of opening and closing of cupboard doors. Maybe they're just for show, but if so, what a length to go to! Still, you have to wonder if they've considered all the contingencies: what about the occasional extra hard slam to simulate the frustrated husband when he finds the cupboard empty of his favourite mead?

- I love the efficiency with which the cardboard boxes containing the furniture components are packed, and how we've (just) been able to fit them in the car each time. I wonder to what extent they have automated the process of determining optimal packings, and does it feed back at all into their design process?

- Less whimsically, I like the whole modular approach to furniture. It focuses the decision process down to a small, hierarchical series of simple choices: Besta or Billy? 80cm or 40cm wide? Black-brown or (off-)white? etc etc...