Last year Atlanta hosted the Super Bowl. I suppose this was meaningful to assorted people in assorted ways, but for us is mostly meant no Superkea Sunday. We had already been wary of traffic going into the city, and then we found out that Ikea was closing early anyway. Going to Ikea on the evening of the Super Bowl to enjoy the nearly empty store is a longstanding family tradition, so we were pretty bummed.

Behold! An empty Ikea (from 2017):

But this year we were back! I’m a little ashamed to admit that we almost bailed on Superkea Sunday this year, too. Milo and Gus both have youth orchestra on Sunday afternoons this year, so the idea of heading to Ikea immediately after shuttling kids around all day sounded kind of overwhelming.

But it’s a tradition!

Also we had gift cards to use.

And we needed chairs.

Let’s talk about chairs first, because that way I get to go ahead and show you this picture of Gavroche:

Actually, though, I can’t really talk about the chairs without talking about the table and the library in general. Back when the dining room got a makeover last year, I knew that this meant the library should not be far behind. The library is the only room that still has the blue paint that we used for the whole front of the house shortly after we moved in. It hasn’t changed a whole lot in years, in fact. Up until a couple of weeks ago, it looked like this:

So I knew we wanted to paint this room white like the dining room and foyer, and that while we were at it we’d probably want to change some other things, too. Like that loveseat. The loveseat was okay, but the dogs were the only ones who ever used it. I thought a table and some comfy chairs might be more useful in here.

I haven’t been thrift shopping lately nearly as much as I used to, and this has made me a little sad. Sad enough that I decided that getting to thrift stores more often should be my New Year’s resolution. One time in college I made a New Year’s resolution to only buy fancy shampoo. This thrift shopping resolution is, on the surface, just as shallow. But I could spin it as being all about reducing waste and recycling and that sort of thing, so let’s go with that. At any rate, on my very first thrifting expedition after my resolution, I spotted this table, AND dining furniture was 30% off that day, so I got it for $49.

It was just what I had in mind; I love the wood and the brass caps on the legs….it just seems so library-y. And it’s a little beat up, which I rarely mind, because it adds character, right? And because it means I don’t have to worry about how it’s inevitably going to get more beat up living in my house. I wasn’t entirely sure what it would mostly get used for, but the kids have already been spreading out on it to do schoolwork and read and play games. It seems we can always use another table.

And then we had to decide on chairs. I considered doing mismatched upholstered chairs, but searches of Facebook marketplace did not immediately reveal what I was looking for, and I was a little impatient, and Superkea Sunday was coming up and all….so we bought these Ikea chairs instead, and they’re very pretty and comfortable.

I have since cut the tags off the bottom. Why are there so many giant tags on Ikea chairs?

So there is still much to do in this room, and I’ll do another post about that at some point. Maybe even soon! But for now we’re enjoying the new table and chairs. The loveseat has moved up to the our master bedroom for now, but I don’t think it’s going to stay there. I have different plans for that space. So many plans!

Like maybe we’ll find somewhere else for Abe’s puppet theater! Or maybe I’ll just move it out of the way for photos when I make more progress on the room. For now it adds a whimsical splash of color! Or whatever.

The cats are enjoying the chairs perhaps even more than we humans are. I was worried they would scratch them, but it turns out they just want to sleep in them all the time instead.

Here is what one of them looked like again a few hours after I de-cat furred it:

Sigh. But it’s better than scratching!

I feel like I’m using a lot of exclamation points in this post. I’m so excited about the table and chairs, you see.

We hadn’t been to Ikea in two full years, I don’t think. But it looked a lot like it did last time we were there. Although they do have this new stuffed animal intensive entryway to the kids’ area:

We mostly just bought chairs. Aside from the chairs for the library, we bought some folding chairs and stools for the travel trailer, to replace less comfortable folding chairs and stools we bought in previous Ikea trips.

This was our first Superkea Sunday without Ari. Sniff. But we took this fun photo to send to him, so it was like he was there: