IKEA Decorating Inspiration (Our Shopping Fun)

You should know by now that IKEA is one of my favorite places on earth to browse and find ideas for my home. Last week, I shared Home Organizing Ideas from a recent IKEA shopping trip. Today, I wanted to show you a bunch more fabulous IKEA decor and design ideas.

I can't think of many things more fun than heading up to IKEA with one of my best people, my friend Christy. We like to pretend that we are Swedish models, Ilsa and Olga; picking out things for our fabulous New York City apartments. We had most of our kids in tow this time, which sort of spoils the fantasy of being young single models, but thanks to the "Smaland" (kids area), we had a bit of free time to roam and take inspiration pics.

I featured most of the pictures in the organizing ideas post, but I have some new ones today. As with the last post, these shots were taken with a point and shoot, so the quality is not uber fantastic, but you get the picture...literally.

Living Areas:

Kitchens and Dining Spaces:

I loooooved the shade on this dining room pendant. Great for a more casual eating area:

How may I serve you? (Our kids love pretending in the showrooms)

Bedrooms:

Some people got tired at this point and needed a rest....

Odds and ends:

Then we shoved three kids in a cart and headed into the market mecca of pretty things. Maybe not all of them were happy about it.

But how can you not be happy when digging through bins of beautiful pillows and fun sheet sets that look my Nannie's vintage stuff?

And then it was time to wait in line with our fabulous finds. Some of us were maybe more excited than others....

What did I score?

Among other things, this awesome tea cup and mug tray that I plan on using not as a tea cup tray. But using it will require T to help me in a small remodeling venture that he has conveniently forgotten about.

Do you have an IKEA nearby? What's your favorite area of the store to browse?