My IKEA Shopping List

We moved into our current home nearly five years ago (where does TIME GO?) and we spent three months decorating, buying furniture and doing it up. Because it was our first proper house (after five years of living in a one bed flat) it was so exciting and ‘grown up’ to decorate. “We have THREE bedrooms!” I remember saying. “What are we going to do with three bedrooms?”

A few months after we moved in, it became clear what we would do with one of the bedrooms – it would be a nursery. After thinking that my period was a bit late (but not being too sure because I never kept track of it) and marching excitedly down to Sainsbury’s to buy a pregnancy test, we discovered that I was 3-4 weeks pregnant. SCREAM! So as morning sickness and tiredness kicked in (woo) decorating and house organisation ground… to… a…… halt.

Fast forward nearly five years and pretty much all of the things we didn’t do, back then, STILL need to be done. And plenty things we bought then need to be refreshed. So as such, I’d like to totally revamp my whole house, please. Totally doable, right? Hmm…

But because we’re not made of money, I’m going to focus on a few important things which need to be sorted and then do the rest gradually. And – brilliantly – lots of the things I’ve been lusting after come from IKEA. We paid the store a visit on Bank Holiday Monday (bank holiday fail) but it was so busy, all we left with was a 50p flamingo glass.

Admittedly, it’s a gorgeous 50p flamingo glass, but there was so much more I wanted to buy. So here’s my current wish list, ready for the next time we brave the IKEA crowds. My IKEA must buys:

First up is the Stockholm rug (£100) which would look amazing in my living room. We’ve been talking about replacing our (boring) black sofas with something mid-century for a while now, and this rug would fit in well now, and when we eventually buy new furniture. Also on my list is the Kallax shelving unit (£45). This is for our daughter’s room. We’re going to update it a bit – after all, it’s four years since we decorated it, and she isn’t a baby any more! These shelves look so versatile and lots of stylish mums (looking at you Fritha and Bryony) tell me they have them. The best bit is that you can really put your own stamp on them with the different inserts available.

Next, a must-have for any self-respecting child (!) is a good place to store books. We’re going to buy a large bookcase but we’re also going to buy IKEA’s wooden spice racks (IKEA hack alert!) which make brilliant book shelves and are a snip at £3 each. I love how you can paint them and drill them to your wall to create a stylish way to store and display books. Lastly, the £120 Kura bed looks amazing. You can have it with the bed up high (we’d put a reading corner down below) or you can flip it so that the bed is down below and you have a panel to climb on, up top. One thing to note is that this bed is fairly small in height, so you might find kids grow out of it fairly quickly. We’re unsure whether to go for this bed or a taller one… What would you do?

What else should I have on my wish list? Give me some more IKEA inspiration!