The Shelving Saga

 Every so often, an experience comes along that tests who you truly are as a person—your determination, your resolve, the bond you have with another person. 

I am talking, of course, about putting together a piece of IKEA furniture. 

For years, Shelley and I talked about the idea of getting a new shelf to replace the ancient black Billy bookcase that was in the living room. We wanted something white to match the rest of the decor, and preferably something with doors at the bottom that hid some of the less lovely things, like wires and gaming consoles and a binder full of DVDs. We recently had gotten rid of all the DVD cases but we kept the movies, because a movie night on the projector is one of life’s great joys. 

I scoured the internet for something French provincial in design that also didn’t cost a zillion dollars. If you know me, you know I’m great at finding what I need online (it may be the reporter in me, and now that I don’t have that outlet it’s put to use finding dresses or books). I failed. The closest I came was a shelving unit from IKEA that had two shelves on the bottom behind two solid doors and three shelves on the top behind glass doors.

When Shelley and I went to IKEA to get this shelf, it was out of stock and needed to be shipped to the store for us to pick up. That was supposed to take a few days. It took a few weeks.

If you’ve ever put together a piece of IKEA furniture, you know the joy. You unpack a bag of incongruous pieces and directions that are just images of a smiling cartoon rapidly assembling an unlabeled piece in shades of black and white. 

You get to relying a lot on intuition and deduction. 

I assessed all the pieces and determined that we were missing a few key pieces for the top portion of our shelf. We tried calling IKEA several times to no avail. 

Our next step was to just build the bottom half. At this point, our living room was in disarray and the old shelf was gone. We needed some semblance of order. 

We finished that part (with some struggles getting the doors on— doors that, in spite of everything, do not align flush with one another) and headed up to the store to see if they had replacement pieces. 

Of course. Of COURSE they didn’t have those specialty pieces, and needed to order them. 

Fast forward another several weeks where we finally received the pieces we needed, only they were the wrong ones. So we had to wait. Again.

When we finally got those pieces, we were able to get the top assembled fairly easily…except the glass doors. No amount of poking, prodding, shoving, or drilling was making those doors fit on those hinges. 

So ya know what? We left the doors off. I think it looks better, actually. 

Since we have put it up, it’s been a source of calm. Books that we have acquired, Shelley’s award for manager of the year, some plants, and a set of vintage French candlesticks from Etsy that now remind me of Lumiére. I’m looking forward to decorating it for the coming holidays. 

When I was younger, my idea of taste was slapping a couple band posters on the wall and calling it a day. There was an older man here, a contractor our landlord hired when we all thought moving was inevitable. He said that our house was tastefully decorated and that the shelf in particular was really nice and well done. Our friend’s mom was here and she also admired the way we had arranged our space. Hearing that was such a huge compliment for me!

 I don’t feel like it’s materialistic to create a space you love, where you can spend your time in a way that makes you feel calm and happy. Your home should not inspire anxiety or clutter. It should bring a sense of relief and safety. And honestly, after the last 18 months, we all deserve a little calm.