Visiting IKEA for the first time – In Centennial, Colorado?

Three or more years ago, Carrie had heard that IKEA would not open a store in Denver.

Supposedly IKEA had a rule about how close their stores had to be to a port.

Colorado is a 20 hour drive from the nearest port (if you’re driving in an aggressive way).

But we returned from our 2 1/2 years of travel, and POOF!  There’s now a HUGE IKEA store right next to I-25.

IKEA in Centennial is every bit as big as everyone says it is, and it takes a while to walk through the store.

The maze through the store reminded me of the episode of Friends where Chandler tries to help Ross quit the gym, and instead ends up joining the gym himself because… there are… other interesting things at the gym.

“I want to quit the gym!” 

There’s too much interesting stuff to check out in here!

The place is huge.

Carrie got some new spice jars $1/each (what we went in to buy).

For our new apartment, we got some shelf liners as well as trash cans with a nifty sliding plate/drawer underneath them, so that we can pull them out easily.

We also bought some whole-wheat bread you make yourself in a milk-carton box (so smartly done and with all-real ingredients), as well as some Norwegian salmon. 

“You can buy salmon at IKEA?”  YEP!

Visiting IKEA also reminded me of the month that we spent in Finland with our friend Anu. 

The practicality of Scandinavian design is amazing because it’s so simple.

Both in IKEA and in Finland, I found myself saying… “That’s so simple!  Why doesn’t everyone do it that way?”

We miss our friends around the world, and it’s nice to have a touch of Scandinavia here in Colorado, even if we did get stuck buying some extras at IKEA.

That IKEA could be built and fully operational in Colorado, in 2 1/2 years, with the kind of inventory it has, is something of a testament to what is possible in the world we live in today.

Truly amazing, and we’ll likely be back… probably soon.  We do, after all, want a bookshelf.

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TAGS: Centennial, IKEA, shopping, store