IKEA was Made for New York Living

Big Monkey and I took the little monkeys to IKEA in Brooklyn over the weekend. I know, crazy eh? A visit to IKEA always has the potential to be volatile, but I’m happy to report all went very smoothly.

I haven’t stepped foot in an IKEA since we lived in Montreal back in 2002. I still marvel at how everything runs like a well oiled machine – from the way you’re pushed through the shop to the way the cafe has stacked pushcarts so you can push up to 4 trays to your table.

We’re still trying to figure out how to make best use of our house. It is a lot bigger than our Upper West Side place, but we still need to be a little creative in how we lay the house out. What better place to visit than IKEA. They have a ton of ideas for small spaces and we were particularly interested in ideas for the kitchen and the kids’ rooms.

I love IKEA. Now just to decide which of their great ideas to implement.

Private spaces and creative uses of wall spaces

This has the potential to be our living room

A loft bunk might be the solution for more play space

Minimalist yet colorful look for a kid's room

Cool Mama Tip

I’ve bookmarked Brooklyn IKEA as an awesome local place to return to on a rainy day. Monkey #1 really wants to check out the play area which we did not have time to get to on this visit. The coffee was actually good and I spied quite a few yummy desserts that I’m sure I could be persuaded to try You can catch a free shuttle from the Smith & 9th Subway station and get dropped off right at the door. In the summer, we are going to head into Manhattan and take the free ferry service across as their are great views. Even from the window of the cafe of IKEA we could see the Statue of Liberty which had Monkey #1 in a frenzy – he loves the Statue of Liberty. Also make sure to sign up for a Family card online and activate it in-store for discounts on furniture as well as free coffees and ice creams.