For today’s look at our home, I wanted to showcase two big pieces of furniture that have a big impact in our apartment. As you may know, Jordan and I are big fans of IKEA, and on separate occasions, we made a pilgrimage to the nearest IKEA (in Minneapolis), and within the past year, we picked up not one, but two Expedit units from IKEA.
Here is how we utilized the first Expedit in our apartment [shown in the photo below, from six months ago or so]. This unit is what I like to call the “Medium” size – and this is before we got the “Large” size Expedit, which you will soon see:
See how we used the “Medium” Expedit (let’s call her Trudy) behind our couch as a sofa table? We stacked a few special photos on top, a table lamp, and my printer, and we filled the cubes to the brim to maximize storage. You’ll notice that most of the items stowed away are kitchen-related; this is due to the fact that while our apartment is growing more homey by the month, we sadly do not have a pantry. And it really, really stinks. But, we’re doing our best to make due. To those of you that have pantries, however: don’t take those puppies for granted – they really are a space safer!
Now, moving on to the “Large” Expedit that we purchased on our most recent trip to IKEA (in July). Let’s call the “Large” Expedit Rudy. When we brought Rudy home, we rearranged our living room to accommodate this large 4×4 unit. So, here’s a look at what Rudy looks like now:
It may help to give you an exterior shot of our living room before, to show you Trudy before Rudy joined the party:
Basically, we moved “Medium” size Trudy to serve as our TV stand, and we built good ol’ Rudy tall and proud to stand where our two-person desk used to be.
So now, our living room looks like this:
In other words, we rely pretty heavily on our Expedit units in our apartment. Without a pantry (and with only ONE drawer in our kitchen, which we use for silverware), we need more kitchen storage, so that’s what Rudy’s function is now, along with book storage. And, when a little one comes along in the future, we plan to fill the bottom two rows of “Large” size Rudy with baskets that hold toys, books, etc. to accommodate a curious child.
Do you have an Expedit unit? What purpose does it serve in your home?
NOTE: I wasn’t paid or perk’d to write about the IKEA Expedit; I’m just a big fan of their furniture!
