Shopping IKEA and Ballard Designs

Recently I took a shopping trip to IKEA in Atlanta and to the Ballard Design Outlet in Alpharetta.  Today, I'm taking you along with me.  These stores are very different.  It's hard to believe IKEA was here for several years before I ever visited.  I had this idea in my head that it was all super modern furniture...far from the truth.  IKEA carries a lot more than just furniture.

I can see why folks plan day trips and drive hours to get here.  The prices are great, the store is gigantic and there's so much to see.  It's an experience for sure.  Even if you don't buy anything, it's so much fun to just look.  I guess you can tell I'm hooked on this place now.

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Let's start our shopping in IKEA.  IKEA has a lot of areas set up as "rooms" so you can sort of see how a room might look with their furnishings.  This would be great for a super compact apartment.

This light always grabs my attention when I'm shopping in IKEA.

That's not a real window behind the light...just a mural/scene they have for the space.

I bought a couple of the floral pillows last year for the swing on the porch, which reminds me...I need to put them back out soon.

I love this wall...such an amazing impact.  You know why I think it's so fabulous?  I think it's because most of the pics are really upclose.  The portraits fill the frame.  Of course, the white frames and matting really pop off the red wall.  A lot of the photos have touches of red in them, as well.  Very dramatic.

Look how everything really pops off these black Billy bookcases.  I have these in white HERE in the office.

Love this!

Pretty mercury glass candlesticks...

A kitchen vignette...  Excuse the angles of some of the pics.  I was there on a weekend so there were people shopping everywhere.  I couldn't always get the greatest views/angles.  On a recent Sunday visit when I stopped by for some additional baskets for the closet Expedit, there were sooooo many folks in this store, I seriously wondered if they had exceeded the capacity allowed by fire codes.  I'm NOT joking.  It was nuts!

More Billy bookcases in a different color.  I think this color  is called birch.

I love the Expedit in this dramatic, shiny red color.  Would be great in a playroom.  You can even attach doors to an Expedit...pretty cool.

Love the beadboard back and furniture feet on these shelves.

Another kitchen...

A few table settings...

Cute terrarium/greenhouse...

Washer and Dryer for those compact laundry spaces...

They have faucets that are like those you see in restaurant kitchens.  I do like that style.

Another kitchen...how do you like the red counter?

Great for holding the utensils you use on a daily basis...

Another table setting...

IKEA is SO big, they have arrows on the walkways for you to follow so you don't get lost or turned around.  IKEA is like a maze that seems to go on forever.

More Billy Bookcases...

Fun coat/book-bag hangers.  That's a book-bag hanging on the doggy tail on the far left.

An office vignette...

The other side of the above office.  I have those same magazine holders on the bottom shelf of my Expedit, HERE.

How do you like that hanging light?

Love the woven trunks at the foot of the bed...great look.  I would want them to match a little better.  Maybe it's just the lighting.

I paid around $4.50 for each of the sheer panels I have on my screened-in porch, HERE.  These caught my eye because they were only $4.99 per pair!  That's even less than what I paid at Wally World.  They were sort of a mesh fabric, perfect for a porch!

So many things to see...

Those are candles there on the right.  They had them in lots of different fragrances.

Ballard Designs:
I stopped by Ballard Designs in Alpharetta, Georgia recently.  All these pics were taken with my cell phone since I didn't have my camera with me.

Just inside the front door I saw this.  Ummm, where have I seen this before?  Oh, I remember!

It was in the craft room when I toured the Southern Living Ideahouse in Senoia, Georgia.  You can take the tour HERE.  See it there tucked under the craft table?

It would make a great side table beside a chair or even an extra seat as they have it in the craft room above.

This is where I bought the bulletin board that's in my home office HERE.

These were kind of neat.

Lots of black lanterns.  Lanterns are so popular right now!

Check out this tray table...

Here's a close up of it.  This would be a fun project to make, wouldn't it?

Globes/shades in a mercury glass style...

More black lanterns...

Cabinetry...

A sofa in a traditional style with a modern twist on the stain color.

Love the fabric on this chair...makes me think beach!

A view looking across.

More cabinetry...must be for closets or a mud room.

Hope you enjoyed this little shopping excursion. See anything that caught your eye?