IKEA Charlotte Grand Opening is in literally DAYS, 15 days, to be exact – and we have guest bloggers lined up to bring us the news from the front lines!  We’ll have coverage of IKEA’s Friends and Family Event on the 14th and coverage from the line on opening day!

Becky Shankle, aka ecomod at IKEAFANS.com and @ecomod on Twitter, of eco-modernism has secured an invite to the Friends and Family event on the 14th (talk about IKEA LOVE!) and has promised to report back on all she sees and hears. Becky is owner of Eco-Modernism, based in Raleigh, NC, a company which has been providing IKEA furniture love in the form of IKEA furniture delivery to the Raleigh Durham area since early 2008.  Becky’s been blogging about her adventures with designing, assembling and installing IKEA kitchens, bathrooms and other rooms since August of 2007.

Ms. Eva comes to us from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She’s been anticipating the opening of IKEA Charlotte since the original announcement on January 17th, 2007. Her blog, ikeacarolina.blogspot.com, chronicles her excitement and enthusiam.  Ms. Eva plans to be in line on Opening Day and will be sending us updates via her new Blackberry on the events, prizes and crowd. Here’s hoping for good weather!

Welcome Becky and Eva to the PositiveFanatics team!

Our friend in H.K., P.K.  Shiu has come up with yet another clever mod – The IKEA Self Watering Plant Pot Hack / Flood Rescue.

“I am at the beginning of my Terrace dressup project. Bought a few IKEA PS FEJÖ self watering plant pot. The color scheme works nicely with the rest of the terrace. Planted our Clementine Mandarin orange tree in one of them. Then came the heavy rain. Because the pot is self watering, meaning there is a water reservior in the bottom, there is no drain hole. With a few days of non stop rain, the pot of soil turned into slush.

What to do? Physics to the rescue…”

Learn how at his website, “Blog from the Loft“

“Since I needed a new bag for my laptop I hacked one of those big blue IKEA bags and transformed it into a fashionable item.

The next version will have your Positive Fanatics Face Paint stencil on it, I guess

Kind regards from Hamburg, Germany,

Bastian”

Visit his blog for instructions

“OK fanatics, I have an Ikea problem. I have an Ikea kitchen bought in Canada in the 80′s. It’s a great kitchen and good as new. The cabinet dimensions are all metric.

A selling point for these kitchens was–and still is–the ability to easily reconfigure everything as needs change. I badly need some new interior fittings, but somewhere along the line Ikea started selling only imperial (that is, American) sized kitchen stuff in Canada — which is a metric country.

Everything but kitchens and beds at Canadian Ikea IS metric.

Every Ikea in the world outside of Canada and the US apparently has the parts I need but, with all of their billions and all of their creativity, they can’t ship what I need to Canada. (I managed, with extreme difficulty, to gain telephone access to their unlisted Canadian head office, but they could do nothing to help.)

As a further issue, we are expanding said kitchen. The 80′s vintage doors are no longer available, so we wanted to replace these doors with a current design. Same story–suitable doors available everywhere outside of North America, but no way to get them here. Of course, local cabinet makers can match the old OR new doors at a staggering price, but Ikea promised me everlasting expansion and reconfiguration availability and they welched on it. Their attitude is “too bad”.

We LIKE our Ikea kitchen and also can’t afford to replace it with all new stuff. So does anyone out there have some access to decision makers at Ikea–or some other creative idea? Surely this situation defies Ikea’s marketing philosophy, and I can’t possibly be alone.

Any suggestions out there?”
…
embee: You might also check out ikeafans for more information on IKEA Kitchens

“ALMHULT, SWEDEN — Most furniture chains don’t have hard-core fans who camp out in parking lots before grand openings or blog about copycat competition in China.

But Ikea is more than a chain. The blue-and-yellow warehouse jammed with low-cost, high-style furniture and housewares is closer to a design revolution.

At company headquarters this spring, project manager Lars Dafnas summed up Ikea’s appeal in just three words: “Natural. Blond. Solid.” It’s a short profile that has cut a long swath through the global
furniture market, making Ikea the world’s leading home-furnishings retailer….

…With $18.3 billion in sales last year, the world clearly likes what Ikea is doing.

At www.positivefanatics.com, the self-proclaimed “unofficial Ikea web journal,” megafans blog about Ikea news and share photos and wish lists.

Armand Frasco, who created the blog in November, said the site is so popular that people think he works for Ikea and regularly ask for him for job applications.

“It’s amazing,” Frasco said. “I hear from people in Michigan, Russia, Malaysia, everywhere.”

When the Houston Ikea opened at its new location in August 2004, the first customers lined up nine days before the doors opened. With a  $10,000 gift certificate as an incentive for the first, it’s easy to understand the motivation. But living in a tent city in the middle of a Houston summer is, as they say, a whole ‘nother thing..”

LINK

[Thanks to Allen Reid!]

Image: “Thar They Blow!” @ IKEA Lovers/FLICKR
ABF © 2006

“Looking for a quick DIY project that gives you an opportunity to create a work of art for your walls for under $50? I think you’ll like this idea, I needed a way to display my Lotta Jansdotter postcards, so I figured I’d grab some IKEA frames, scissors and a roll of duct tape.

A: Purchase frames at IKEA. You can purchase as many, or few, as you’d like. I grabbed the NYTTJA 2-packs in white (5.5 x 7.5″, which fits images 4 x 6″). Next, pick up a roll of heavy duty clear duct tape. Please do not purchase the standard gray, for one, it’s ugly and two, the color peeks through the cracks. Grab a package of sawtooth picture hangers too, these will secure the art to the wall when you’re finished. Don’t forget a pair of good scissors.

B: Collect your images, mini-paintings, postcards, cards, anything that you’d like to display….”

HOLLY @ decor8
Check it out!

” Take the Vika Inge legs by Olle Lundberg which will only run you $40 and,
rather than fiberboard & laminate, skip over to the kitchen section and get
the Pronomen solid wood countertops which will only run you about $49 and come
in multiple lengths and widths. Then put the two together…”

Apartment Therapy

LINK

“My 2nd hand klippan came with a blue slipcover & unfortunately, I’m not the
biggest fan of blue. As an alternative sofa covering, I used a queen sized quilt
to protect the seating area. Then, I cut a Bomull bedspread in half and used the
two pieces to cover the arm rests. The look certainly works for me. Meanwhile,
mum has fallen in love with my klippan & is thinking of getting one for
herself. Since she’ll need a slipcover, I’m giving her my unused blue one…”

“TUNHEM cabinets from IKEA. The perfect storage solution for the formal
living room, which we’ve made into a playroom for the kids. Fast clean
up, close the doors, and the room is presentable and ready to be used
for new activities.”

By Scrappin in the rain
Visit her photoset on FLICKR.

Images: © 2006 Scrappin in the rain. Used with permission.

“Shoe storage is very important to keeping the house tidy. Us Asian especially
like to take our shoes off at the door. Any normal shoe storage solution is
likely to be too small. What to do?