Perhaps we should have bought a smaller tv

Today we made the trek up to Ikea with the intent to purchase a new tv stand since we're tired of looking at the makeshift one we have at the moment and the upside down milk crates just aren't making the cut. To prepare for the trip we measured the wall (it's short), and the measurements of the console table currently in place. What we forgot to measure was the tv itself, which would have been a good idea as we discovered later.

We made it up to Ikea around lunchtime but decided to try shopping a bit since David was convinced it wouldn't take any time at all to pick a tv stand and be on our merry way. Two hours later we decided to just go eat lunch at the Ikea cafeteria while we continued to consider our options. I have to say that for $12 we ate like kings at Ikea. David and I each had a ham and cheese sandwich and split a fruit bowl and some fries while Grace had some yummy macaroni and cheese and chocolate milk. Seriously, the food was great and super cheap!

Back at the media storage department we looked at our options for the 3000th time and realized that the Ikea designers had never stepped foot into our living room to design a tv stand perfect for us. Instead they designed them to be just a touch off. We were down to three options, a low white stand, a higher dark wood stand with glass doors, and a really wide medium wood stand. None of the colors exactly match the woods in our living room, but the cloest was the wide medium wood stand. Problem with that one is that it was only 6" shorter then the entire wall and would really be crowding the fireplace. I didn't want the white one because I thought the huge black tv and electonical goodies would look even more large and black with a white background. Plus we don't have any other painted furniture so it would look odd. David didn't like the dark wood since it is darker then the other woods we have and would stick out like a sore thumb.

We moved on to the warehouse in the vain hopes that perhaps one of the stands came in another color option. They didn't. But we found another one that could work that David dismissed earlier because he didn't think our tv would fit. Looking at the dimensions we could tell it would be close (it's the kind that completely surrounds the tv in a box so dimensions are crucial!). He called our friend Pat and had him look up the dimensions of our television and it was a little less then an inch too big to fit. Lovely.

So now we're back to square one and might be calling on my favorite Father In Law to work us some magic and help David make one to fit our requirements when we visit next weekend. We did get to stop by and visit with my Dad and brother while we were in Portland which was nice. Dad had been working on painting the shed and it looks great so far! I'm sure Mom will love it when she gets home tomorrow.