Everyone’s At Ikea

“What do you do with your photos,” I’ve been asked? Considering I’ve taken around 25,000 shots with my Canon, it’s a reasonable question.

For a while, I did nothing. Then, this fall and again a few weeks ago, I had picture books made. I’ve also had some shots printed. I was well over 10,000 shots taken before that began.

I started with 5x7s and 8x10s. They seemed reasonably large. After all, a ‘regular’ photo print is 4×6 and 8×10 is four times larger than that!

Then I visited my friend Peter in Ventnor City, NJ.

Peter has a few immense prints on his wall and they look great. Some he took at the Jersey Shore. Other shots came from Hawaii.

I stood and stared and, quite honestly, was envious. They really did look great.

Today, I drove to Ikea in New Haven to find some frames, so I could hang my soon-to-arrive larger sized prints.

Ikea is a chain of large warehouse-like home furnishings stores. The home office is in Sweden, the stores are found worldwide and most of the merchandise is made in China.

The secret to Ikea’s success is very clean, simply styled, inexpensive stuff for your home or apartment. It’s mostly unassembled, so you can carry it home in your car. With Ikea, there’s no longer a need to have that brick and board bookshelf!

Though the store is a warehouse, it’s very inviting. Picture frames are hung. Fixtures are lit. Furniture is displayed in partitioned off home and apartment sized rooms.

I got off I-95, turned into the parking lot and gasped. It was Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM and Ikea’s lot looked like the mall on the last shopping day before Christmas!

I may be a guy, but I do ask directions. I might still be wandering around if I hadn’t.

I was disappointed they didn’t have everything I wanted. All my frames are simple and black. I wanted more of the same.

I bought a few 16x20s and a 5-photo frame which displays 5x7s. I wanted some 12x16s and more 8×10 frames, but there were none to be found in black. I can go back or try them online.

On my way back I stopped at Michael’s to get a matte cut. One photo from my last batch was oddly sized.

I uploaded and ordered more prints tonight. I’m now ready to attack the two walls set aside as my gallery. It’s pretty exciting and a lot of fun.

And, on top of that, I hit Ikea and Michael’s in one afternoon! How many guys will admit to that?

2 thoughts on “Everyone’s At Ikea”

  1. Geoff- I’m ready to take your “man card” away from you for shopping in those 2 stores!! You need to make up for it by going to Home Depot or Lowe’s (I think you are as handy with tools as I am though).

    I’m not a big fan of Ikea. The way the store is set up they make it impossible for you to leave easily- you must walk through the entire store to exit. (Of course, it is done on purpose so you can see everything and make a purchase.)

  2. The store gets busy as people from Massachusets to New York go there. If I remember right, they tried building the biggest Ikea ever in the Bronx or Brooklyn and the city shut it down before it had a chance…They had to go with Long Island and New Jersey…

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