It's Ikea time of the year

September: new school term, new season, new Ikea catalogue.

Now, when moving into my new apartment last year, I had *major* issues with Ikea: namely that I most definitely didn't want to buy loads of stuff from there just because it was cheap. I just didn't want my flat looking so obviously like a "first-time buyer's" that everything was unimaginatively picked out of the Ikea catalogue. Hence, I spent an entire year while waiting for my flat to physically be built planning, and labelling, and saving, for things I *really* wanted. 

Inevitably though, there were some basics that I just had to (because lets face it, there's not much left over in the kitty when you buy an apartment) get from Ikea (and boy did I loathe those Sundays spent queueing in the "market place"). 

But everything I initially bought - boring, uninteresting stuff like bathroom cabinets and glass shelves and bedstands - got returned. Why? Because when you've got workmen coming in and out of your flat, you have neither the time nor the space to sit and figure out how to put things together that look simple, but really aren't, or have inexplicable instructions with stick men instead of straight forward English. Maybe it was my bad luck, but anything I've ever got from Ikea in the past has almost always had pieces missing, or doesn't have the right instructions, and so I've almost always ended up returning things. Things like cushions and plant pots and cutlery are the safest things you can buy from there, and there's no where else you can buy cheaper tealights, and I do like their bed linen but, personally, I find Ikea is a bit of a soulless false economy. Anyone else?

Anyhow, here are some snippets of their new catalogue. I am trying to keep an open mind, and I will admit that sometimes flicking through the Ikea catalogue with a cup of tea can be oddly addictive (ok, very addictive). But it's just the experience of actually going there that can be so traumatic. 

So here we go: now, I really, really don't like the combination of shocking pink and black high gloss furniture...

...the blue and white stripes look a bit samey. I know blue and white is a nice classic but none of this looks upbeat, if you know what I mean? (Or maybe I'm being mean?!). Nice light feature though, I guess...

...On the other hand, I do quite like the inky blue walls here, though not sure I'd personally team them with a tomato red shade... 

I know the aim of this white room was probably clean line, grown up and elegant, but to me it looks boring (albeit pretty mirror). Hope all the screws were present when constructing the bed frame...

This bedroom below is slightly more visually interesting with the frames and the green leaf stencil, but please, no more bog standard black and white art prints of bridges in big cities! Please!

And because I do love yellow, I have to give them some credit for trying here. OK, so it's an 80s florescent yellow (a little off the mark) but points for effort. 

So what do you think? Am I being an unnecessarily harsh critic? Where do you stand on Ikea?