Beware what you buy at Ikea or you might end up sleeping on thorns

A few days ago I went to Ikea. I planned to be in and out of there in half an hour, but what was supposed to be a furniture trip ended up differently. I got caught up with the Ikea product names. If you’ve never been to Ikea, well, at Ikea every product has a name. I’ve always thought they’re just made-up furniture names, some kind of code. And since they had wi-fi, I googled some names, and guess what? They’re not code at all. They are actual words in the Swedish language.

Apparently the furniture is named after Swedish places. Incidentally, I bought a storage table called KVISTBRO, and that is a place in Sweden that does farming and mining. So now, every time I’m looking at my new table, all I can think of is people toiling the earth or people coughing. The chairs and the desks have men’s names, and I’m actually looking to get a new desk and office chair, but I’m not sure how I feel about sitting all day on a man’s name. I need a female presence in my office – I work better when there’s a fair gender balance – so I guess I’m going to have to put only books written by women in my office. And by chance I saw a chair pad called NORNA, which is the name of a destiny goddess in North mythology, so that would make my sitting on a chair more… agreeable.

I’m also looking to buy a floor mirror, and I found one called ISFJORDEN which means “ice fjord”, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. If I get this mirror, every time I’ll look in the mirror I’ll feel cold.

So you see, when you shop at Ikea, there are lots of things to consider.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up the pillows I bought from Ikea a while ago and that I like a lot. They’re called JORDROK which means “fumitory”. A fumitory is a plant with spikes and small flowers, often considered a weed. How do I feel about sleeping on a weed? I love it! I’m extremely partial to flora (and fauna) of any kind, and especially weeds.

See you,

Misty