by Michele Blacksberg

Created on: June 27, 2009

If you could receive a college degree for the hours spent shopping both in the store and on line at Ikea, my husband and I would each qualify. One month ago, we decided to finally redo our basement office with fresh carpet, paint and new office furniture from the affordable Ikea that opened up in our neighborhood a couple of years ago.

This was not our first experience shopping at Ikea. Our first coffee table came from the "throw away" room and it is still standing in my living room. We had purchased "Billy" bookshelves for my son's room a few years ago and my husband had previously researched purchasing an Ikea computer desk.

After the new updated carpet was installed and the walls were painted with an uplifting color, we took our room measurements and drove to that bright blue building with the giant yellow Ikea painted outside which is bold enough to be seen for miles. Once inside we found following the arrows to the workspace section to be tricky to maneuver.

For those of you who have never been to Ikea, the circuitous patterned path they set up to wander the aisles can be dizzying. The maps in the store that show "you are here" are only so helpful since you have no idea where everything else is to orient yourself or where the front or the back of the store resides. Luckily, we spotted a "short-cut" sign cutting through closets and found ourselves in the land of "Galant" and "Effektiv".

Excited to see the sleek looking designs, we compared our measurements with the various configurations of the "Galant" desk and finally came up with potential layout. Next we viewed the "Effektiv" cabinets in every version under the sun complete with white, birch, beech, or brown cabinetry, red or clear doors and wood toned or red drawers. Back and forth we walked imagining what would be best matched with the "Galant" desk. Double cabinets on top and bottom, double drawers on bottom cabinet on top, one drawer bottom and three cabinets on top etc. We ended up leaving without a decision.

The choices become overwhelming very fast at Ikea and you think to yourself, if I go to the website, I'm sure it will be easier to envision the choices; their website must have a really slick room planning interface. The website however, is slick but not the way intended. The flashy pages take forever to load. There is a quick interactive section for building a "Vika" table with different legs but nothing similar to build the "Effektiv" or "Galant" furniture in order try

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