Design inspiration at Ikea

A new Ikea store just opened in Charlotte last weekend. My 12-year-old daughter and I made a trek there this afternoon. I’d heard all the great things about Ikea, but was still unprepared ... WOW! This place is huge, and full of wonderful, affordable, well-designed products.

The building exterior is all blue and yellow, like the Swedish flag:

The Charlotte store is 365,000 square feet, and has 49 room settings, 3 model homes, 1700 parking spaces, a 350-seat restaurant, a Swedish food market, a bistro, and a chidren’s play area. We arrived around noon, and had lunch before we ventured into the vast store. The restaurant features several Swedish foods, including dill-cured salmon, and Swedish meatballs (which Lea said were excellent):

The restaurant is decorated with Ikea furnishings, including these black-and-white fabric panels:



Hung in the windows, the red ovals on the fabric panels glowed in the sunlight. Giant nylon leaves marked a small play area for children:

These lights looked like they were made from giant potato chips:

Of course, what I liked best were the textiles:













These two panels of fabric were used as curtains but they also make a bold statement as wall art:





Here’s the same piece of fabric as above, under glass in cool customizable panels that cover shelving units:

These bookshelves had wonderful frosted glass coverings etched with floral designs:

This wall light was made from compressed glass:



These bookcases had a beautiful black floral print at the back:



Cool lights for a child’s room: