IKEA Philippines opened in November 2021 but it took almost two years for me to make my first visit here. I guess that's because up until just now, I hadn't had a need to buy any new furniture or home equipment.
Recently, however, I realized that I needed a new shelf. That's because I have amassed so much stuff over the last few years and I don't have enough storage at home anymore. I started going to furniture stores to look for possible shelves and I actually found a couple of really nice ones, although they were very expensive. (The ones I saw that I really liked were in the P38,000-50,0000 range!) I checked out the Ikea website to see their range of shelves and I saw one that appealed to me. While I could've just purchased the shelf online, I wanted to see it in person first. I decided to make my way to Ikea to check it out.
Ikea is a Swedish brand (although apparently, it is now based in the Netherlands) so there was a sense of nostalgia as soon as I got there. (I lived in Sweden for about 6 months in 2007 when I was assigned to work on a project there.) The Ikea logo itself sports the blue and yellow of the Swedish flag. And inside, there was a display that showed the flags of the Philippines and Sweden next to each other, along with the seal of Pasay City.
I will say that I got a bit lost when I arrived. I wasn't quite sure where to go and I also didn't know how to purchase items. I decided to have an early dinner before delving into my search for the shelf I wanted. I gotta say, I really love the Ikea restaurant! I ended up ordering meatballs (after all, Sweden is known for meatballs haha), salmon, a croissant, and coffee (their coffee is refillable). I really enjoyed my dinner and seeing the Swedish flag on my plate of meatballs made me miss Sweden even more.
I eventually got my bearings and found my way to the section with shelves. I was looking for a shelf named Jattesta so I asked one of the salespeople for help and he pointed it out to me. While the website does indicate the dimensions of the shelf, seeing it up close made me realize it was bigger than what I expected. (It was also definitely bigger than the other shelves that I saw from other furniture stores.) This was perfect for me because it meant that I could place more items on it.
I purchased the white and light bamboo Jattesta shelf (it also comes in black but the lighter color works better in my small space). The purchasing process requires you to take a photo of the price tag with the bar code and show it to the salesperson. They will print out an invoice for you that you have to present at the check-out counter and that's where you pay. Since the shelf was quite big, I opted for their delivery service (P600). The salesperson asked me if I wanted to purchase anything else because the fee would be the same no matter how many items I had delivered but most of the other items I wanted to buy, I could just carry home with me. I placed my order and I was told that it would be delivered in about 3 days. Cool!
I then went around to purchase more stuff. I ended up getting a couple of bookends, several picture frames, a storage case made of fabric, and a bedside clip-on lamp (I needed to replace the one I got a while back). My lone impulse buy was another lamp named Tarnaby. I didn't need another light source at home but when I saw it, I thought it looked really nice. The light can also be dimmed. The bulb is sold separately so all in all, it cost me more than P1000 but now that I've set it up at home, I'm really happy with it and I have zero buyer's remorse haha.
On my way out, I also purchased a bag of frozen meatballs.
I also purchased some plant balls to take home with me. They said that they don't have a lid for it but I told me them it was okay. They were actually quite good!
A few days later, my delivery arrived. I ended up spending an entire Friday evening building my shelf. (Ikea provides a service for furniture assembly but I decided I wanted to build it myself.) It wasn't easy to put it together, much less to make it stand (it was really heavy!) but now that it's set up, I think it looks really nice. I now have more storage for my books and board games! I also thought it would be a perfect place to put my new lamp.
This trip to Ikea really reminded me of Sweden and brought back so many wonderful memories. It makes me want to visit Sweden again. Until then, maybe I will just visit Ikea more often.
IKEA Philippines
https://www.ikea.com/ph/en/
MOA Square, Mall of Asia Complex Zone 10 CBP-IA, Marina Way, Pasay, 1300 Metro Manila
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