IKEA Furniture

When I moved to the Twin Cities, I needed some new furniture for my apartment,  Stuff that would work great for building and displaying my Lego's.  So, I went to the adult (not Adult, you sicko) Lego store, better know as IKEA.  I found three great pieces to help me out, and I'd like to talk some more about them here.

HEMNES Coffee Table

I never had a coffee table growing up.  I would always sit on the floor to put my Lego's together.  I'm not as young as I used to be.  Sitting on the floor for a good 15-20 minutes can cause my portions of my leg to fall asleep.  With a coffee table, I can raise my building surface to knee level and sit on the couch (though, I still sit on the floor when I'm at the coffee table)

Counting my medium stone gray 2x4 bricks

My coffee table is pretty cluttered up with junk and stuff, but I can always manage to clear enough room to dump out all the pieces to the set I'm working on.  I never bother sorting them, so it can take me a bit longer for assembly.  I don't really have anywhere to be, so it'd nice when I can take my time.

My completed Racing Garage (left) and Christmas 2013 haul (right)

When I first started taking pictures of my Lego's for my blog and social media profiles (Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr), I'd set them up on the coffee table.  My wife has taught me a little about photography, especially to post things on blogs, so I go to the dining table now.  But my trusty HEMNES coffee table will always be there for me to put everything together before the photo shoots.

EXPEDIT Shelving Unit

Items on top of my EXPEDIT shelf

The EXPEDIT shelving unit is excellent for displaying items with a 32x32 baseplate, plus a few things in front of those buildings.  Knick-knacky things, like vehicles, minifigures, and decorative items.  Each spot is about 13" square in front and 15" deep, so I've got all kinds of real estate for  a few items

One compartment in the EXPEDIT containing a log cabin, some airport accessories, a bag of pieces, and a minifigure

IKEA no longer offers EXPEDIT in their stores or online.  They replaced this line with the KALLAX.  It's nearly as good, but the KALLAX only comes in 4x4 compartments, where EXPEDIT was 5x5.  Good thing I got EXPEDIT with its 25 compartments, even though I'm not even using them all right now for Lego's.

Look at all those Lego's...

BESTÅ Shelving Unit

BESTÅ's are great for sets with 48x48 baseplates, which measure 15" on each side.  Although the shelf is not deep enough to fit the entire baseplate on, there's still plenty of room on the sides for extra things to sit on.  You could even fit an item with 2 32x32 baseplates side by side, with no problem whatsoever.

BESTÅ is best for the bigger stuff

Although IKEA still carries the BESTÅ line, they no longer offer the unit I have.  Mine is 2 columns and 5 rows of shelves (10 total), and the shelves have much more clearance at 15" tall.  You could probably buy a couple of this BESTÅ and stack them upon each other.  That could work

I think this will fit on the shelf...

All IKEA furniture comes with simple to follow assembly instructions, much like you'd find in a new Lego set.  It's all pictures, and they show what to add in each step.  It's EXACTLY putting Lego's together.  But be careful, these things are huge and could possibly kill you, which I think would be worse than stepping on Lego pieces on the floor.

Laser Tag Arena, Disco Gal, bus and taxi on top, Forest Police and Fire Stations and Mountain Hut below