So I went on a little bit of a buying spree at Ikea yesterday. After talking over the plan with my wife, I bought the following:
2 Kallax 8x8 shelves:
16 Drona boxes, 8 black, 8 white
2 DIODER
So our Living Room doubles as a playroom (small house) and we have all sorts of toys and boxes and bins, as well as a couple of mismatched bookcases flanking our big couch on the wall opposite the TV. It just looks fugly and cluttered. SO, the plan is to replace the mismatched (and small) bookcases with the 2 big 8x8 Kallax units on either side of the couch. In the bottom 8 boxes of the shelving units, We'll put the white and black Dronas boxes in a checkerboard pattern, to match the appearance of the TV wall that I set up this summer (see below). The top eight squares will not have boxes, but rather will serve as spaces for books and for ornaments. Again, a checkerboard pattern will prevail when determining which squares hold books and which hold ornaments. For the squares that hold ornaments I will install one DIODER lamp in each space, giving some neat accent lighting. The addition of the 16 DRONAS boxes on the bottom halves of the KALLAX units will allow me to get everything that is currently stored in miscellaneous bins and boxes on the floor and behind our loveseat stored away in a neat and organized manner, and it will free up a lot of floor area that can be used as playspace.
I also bought a bed, the MALM:
For the last 4 years our bed has consisted of a Queen mattress and a box-spring just sitting on the floor. It was functional but it didn't look very nice. Finally, we have a bed (my first time ever having a headboard). This one also has drawers underneath it so we can store even more things (when you have a small house finding places to store things is hard).