A newspaper story yesterday detailed the changing shape of the IKEA bookshelf, as testament to the matter that our lives are increasingly devoid of books. Au contraire! What’s actually happening is people are embracing the Japanese handsaw and waking up the fact IKEA shelves are God awful creations. Bockety and bulky.

Last week I turned left to go onto a highway and was surprised to find myself in a car park, none other than the IKEA car park. Peckish, I went in for a plate of chicken and Swedish chocolates. The furniture seems so ugly in IKEA once you’ve gotten up close with planks of wood and a handsaw. Even a basic spruce back yard plank has more appeal. But it’s so quick and easy people will protest. It’s not quick though — it’s a beeping nightmare! There’s always some dowel that doesn’t quite fit or you place the stuff back to front. Whereas making simple custom sized bookshelves, …well I’ll let you know once I’ve made a free-standing set.

I’ve made many that hang on the walls and I just custom made a very small free standing set that are dandy. It was not at all difficult and I have no aptitude for such things.

I was also noticing how unpioneering IKEA have been in the area of washing lines — most lacking. In the area of literature they publish a catalogue and nearly all their instructions have no words included. Hmmm.