My Favorite Item in the New IKEA Spring Catalogue is this Hot Bookshelf

Isn't this great?

You probably think it's gay, but my gaydar doesn't register a thing.

Clearly, those are straight Scandinavian men impressed into bookshelfing duty.

You can tell they're Scandinavian, because if you look closely you can see Swedish meatballs.

This is so much better than IKEA's shitty BILLY bookcase, which you couldn't have paid me to take home.

As I have said many times before, furniture at IKEA is often flimsy, poorly constructed of inferior materials, and cheap looking.

But this is like a fifty-fifty thing. It seems to be more anything cabinet-like or armoire-like (much of the ANEBODA series) or shelfy (BILLY bookshelf) which ends up being crap there.

But then you find items that are just fine. Or better than fine. Fabu.

I still covet the KRAMFORS black leather couch and other KRAMFORS elements but no way in hell I have a room that could pull that off. And the EKTHORP white overstuffed chair looks lovely. It has that Long Island or New England Cape Cod look.

Don't get me wrong--at any given moment there are probably a thousand spectacular items in any given IKEA, and the vast majority of these items will be priced to make you coo.

I needed a cute foyer console table and could not find a single one I liked in furniture stores around here and ended up going with a little LEKSVIK table that's not truly a console but worked perfectly. I didn't feel like driving down so I ordered it online. (I got lucky since the last time I checked only a smallish subset of catalogue items can be had by mail.) And it has partitioned shelves so it's great for seasonal decoration--like right now I have the last of the Easter candy for visitors, mailmen, etc. in little blue sundae glasses that look Easterish on the top shelf on either side of a large vase with a frighteningly baroque bouquet of dried flowers, other vegetal oddities, peacock feathers and whatnot we all made together after a visit to one of those huge crafts stores. And then there's some horrific giant mutant baby chick candle on one of the other levels. And some antique bunnies that look vaguely salacious. The LEKSVIK pulls it all off and doesn't complain or bring undue attention to itself. It's very footman-noble. It would probably wear livery if I asked it to. And not bitch about it behind my back.

Thanks, Craig, for sending me such a great furnishing idea lol!

You know my taste already!

But that's what friends are for, right? Intution.

Here's the online provenance if you pervies want to go see more.

I know I do.

Widespread unemployment has resulted in people taking some jobs they might not have considered in the past.