The IKEA Effect

Even the biggest IKEA fan knows what it means to visit on a weekend. It is a major undertaking that will leave your emotions and wallets drained. But I love it. Walking away with your haul, dizzy with thoughts of how you can rearrange your living room to fit that new console table, how your couch will look with those fantastic throw pillows.

And then there is that thrill of building your furniture yourself. Wait, what? What thrill? Do you mean the painful 6 hours of assembling those wardrobes, only to have the doors still slightly askew? I don’t think I know anyone who actually enjoys assembling furniture with just an Allen key, but perhaps it’s the idea of the finished product that keeps us going. Putting in all the time and sweat to build that table, those shelves, install that pendant lamp, makes you feel pretty awesome. There is even a name for this feeling – “The IKEA Effect“, a study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, which proves we place way more value on something that we built ourselves, even if it is from a pre-made kit.

IKEA coffee table hack

If you Google “Ikea hacks”, there will be thousands of examples of ways to customize your IKEA furniture. There are endless possibilities to update your seemingly mass-produced table, chair or shelving unit. I love looking through these posts because it teaches you to think outside the box and envision another purpose for all those Lack tables you have in your basement.

When living in a small space, the one piece of furniture that I feel is THE most important is the coffee table. It will be the place where you eat, drink, study and put your feet up on (even if you’re not supposed to). When we moved into our last apartment, the living space was very narrow, so I was on the hunt for a coffee table that was the perfect size for the room. We needed something that was narrow, not too low, had some extra storage, and preferably wood – all while looking good too. I loved the look of the simple dark iron framed tables with rustic wood shelves, similar to this one from CB2: