Modern Vespa

I was in Habitat at lunchtime and beheld a couple of tasteful scootery items:

- Set of tea towels, one scooter, one double-decker bus, one tuk-tuk

- Flashing scooter brooch which I bought for myself and intend to wear at all DSSC functions

OK, I lied, only the first one is tasteful.

Yes, yes, you did.

I need some tea towels - my current ones are tea rags.

Look forward to seeing your tasteless decorations - but I bet you were thinking about Crimble shopping.

I've done zilch so far.

I have an awesome tasteless Santa-on-motorcycle I bought in Paperchase in the January sales, and I'm greatly looking forward to dangling him from our colour-changing fibre-optic tree.

Need moooore tacky bike-themed decorations, though.

Oooooh yeah: smoooooooth.

Jaquard weave on a tea towel!

Seriously POSH!

I remember when Habitat was like IKEA is today - the home of affordable yet stylish pieces.

I note they've taken over IKEA's practice of giving every product a stupid name, without the corresponding value for money.

(Really I'm just bitter because I can't afford a set of translucent orange acrylic dining-chairs, and have nowhere to put them even if I could.)

Aaaaargh, my eyes! Those chairs!!!

I'm in need of a new comfy chair atm. Have found one I really like, but can't bring myself to spend the money on it. At heart, I'm just not into buying things.

I wish I was not into buying things. I would be a better person with a fuller ISA, rather than a person who has just bought a random tea tray for her mother and a flashing scooter badge for herself.

I wasn't convinced by fibre-optic trees until I owned one and realised what a joy it is not having to fiddle around with fairy lights. The mellow ambience is quite enjoyable, too.

Husky, I've got to disagree about IKEA - you couldn't pay me to go there. Smells of boiled Swedish meatballs and all the buy to let landlords in the world cluttering up the joint in Brent Cross, and you have to hump all the "bits" back into the car. And the quality is often as good as those meatballs. If you haven't killed the person you are with its a miracle.

The light relief are those names, such as the PONG table, BANG sofa, or PIPPOO light fittings.

BB, I too want a comfy chair, probably an Eames lounger (or suitably clever copy).

I am one of IKEA's fans, I'm afraid; they supplied my bed, bookcases, innumerable small kitchen items, not to mention VIFTA the cuddly husky.

I quite like the meatballs too...

Oh my kitchen is IKEA.... hyprocrisy!

But we will have agree to disagree on the meatballs - I believe they would make an acceptable substitute for Slazenger at Wimbledon, such is their sponginess...

ah, so you admit to having sampled the meatballs. i've not gone down that route yet, though i confess to having eaten their hotdogs to while away time whilst in the queue.

another ikea fan here i'm afraid. life as i know it would grind to a halt without billy bookcases and those things they sell to stop area rugs from sliding all over hardwood floors and killing me.

my kitchen is from Ikea too...

I keep this Modern Toss picture stuck to the inside of one of the cabinet doors...

try going to ikea with bill some time. 'surreal' doesn't even begin to describe it.

Bought yesterday at our local garden center.




classy

Love the cartoon, Spider.

Hate IKEA, but love some of their products. A bookcase is a bookcase, when all's said and done, so I like their cheap bookcases and CD-bookcase-thingies. And for cheap pots, pans, and the like, they're gooooood. It's just that it's so emotionally scarring going to shop in one.

WM - it's the Eames lounge chair that I'm trying to stop myself buying. To add to the fact that it's already v expensive (GBP to Euro exchange rate only adds to what is already an expensive thing), I vastly prefer it in the most expensive finish.

Yeah, its not great in cheap leather... and yes, it horribly expensive!

It just looks like the ultimate headphone chair and I want it.

Awesome! Name and shame your garden centre, please!

ikea is full of red-faced couples swearing at each other through gritted teeth.

cheap stuff though.

Sorry to disturb you Brits talking about IKEA stuff, but:

I'm shocked! Here in Finland our most exclusive department store Stockmann (which I believe is our modest equivalent of your Harrod's) has an in-store Habitat shop with exclusive rights, and boy they're not telling that Habitat is like IKEA with affordable prices. Nooo, I believe it's marketed as "the choice of exclusive interior designers". They do have some nice stuff there though.

Thanks for the enlightment!

Habitat started out as a mega cheap venture in the 1960s with Terence Conran - it was never exclusive.

It was also, until very recently, owned by ..... IKEA.

You want nice, beautifully designed British furniture and have a wallet the size of the Basque Country? Go to Heals.

Well what do you know. It's more like we're tricked to believe that it's exclusive. Excellent albeit misleading marketing.

whats a tea towel for??

do you wear it so you dont get your tea on your shirt

http://www.thegardeneronline.co.uk/brimsmore-gardens.asp

there's a lot of tat in Habitat .... seriously - their upholstered stuff is really cheap and nasty and lasts about a year before looking like it was dragged out of a skip. i had one carpet from there that mysteriously developed a hole precisely in the center, for no apparent reason.

Ikea stuff, on the other hand, lasts until you can't stand the sight of it any more...

Rats, I was thinking this was a new tattoo thread.

Me too