I’ve developed sort of a “love/hate” relationship for Ikea.  I’m sure most reading this have heard of the Swedish company known for somewhat contemporary furniture at budget prices.  They engineer some very unique things, and you can spend hours shopping in one.

Of course, if you go inside one it can also take you hours just to figure out how to get out ... more on that in a minute. When they  built the Ikea here in Salt Lake City, I swore I would never shop there ... the bright blue color (it’s brighter than in the picture above) seemed a little insensitive to the local property owners.  I guess you get used to it, but I would think a nice dark grey or brown building would have been terrific.  It’s not like you can miss the store anyway, sitting right on I-15, the main traffic corridor in Salt Lake City.  For a company that brags about how sensitive and concerned they are for the planet, it seems that visual pollution doesn’t count ... let alone the harmful ingredients it took to make those thousand of gallons of paint that would actually stick to cement.

I had a workroom (if you could call it that) for printing.  Since I do most of the prep work in my upstairs office, it didn’t matter too much what it was like, so it was crammed full of stuff.  Then I started doing my own profiles, and didn’t want the EyeOne i0 table up in the office, so I cleared off some space and set it up down there.  The final straw was my decision to buy the new Epson 11880 printer ... I had no where to put it.  So it was time to turn the work room into a “work room”.

I was pretty sure I was looking at at least $10k or more to have cabinets built and installed.  I hated doing that  .. what if I didn’t like how I had laid it out?  What if I decided to move?  What if I couldn’t get the room ready by the time the printer arrived?

I finally decided to check out the Ikea store and see if they perhaps had anything that might be functional and a little more reasonable, despite the fact I had vocally stated I would never shop there unless they painted their stupid building a little more neutral color.  I was a little unprepared ... my plan was a quick look at some of the office furniture and shelfs I had seen online to get an idea of what they were like.  I was beginning to get somewhat dizzy winding around through the store, but finally found the section I was looking for.  I found two lines of office furniture that are very modular and looked promising, a modular desk system called Galant, and a modular cabinet/drawer system called Effektiv. I took a few measurements and tried to make sure I understood how the different pieces were designed.

A couple of hours later I finally found the exit (OK, it wasn’t that bad, but it seemed like it) and headed home to plan out the room.  I decided on two corner desks, one which I raised to a working height with the adjustable legs,  and some cabinets.  So here’s a couple of shots after ... I think the entire project cost me around $2,300, and i have a variety of storage options and lots of working space.

They have 3 or four colors.  I chose the birch to keep the room light - it just looked better and more natural than the others. The corner desk works quite nicely with the Epson 9800, and I’ve got enough room for the longer 11880 when it arrives.  Be aware this is all assemble it yourself ... it’s not difficult to do, but does take some time.  The only challenge I had was with the wall units.  I didn’t trust using a drywall anchor, so I created a way to make sure they were very solid, since  some contain books and can get a little heavy.  I ended up making 3 more trips to the store, as I added a few things .  The good news is they have a bunch of “shortcuts”,  and a little map that shows where to find them (you need the map). By the 3rd visit I could get to the area I wanted, and back down to the pickup/purchase area in 1/10th the time it took the first visit. 

I’ve since added one more thing that’s not pictured... a Glass top Galant desk on chrome legs with casters.  In Michael Reichmann’s excellent “From Camera to Print” video he mats and frames a print using this table, and the comment of how easy it is to clean made sense.  He’s right.  Great working space, easy to get completely clean, and in my case I can roll it around to keep it out of the way.