A plain insane plan – Rush Hour to IKEA
My housemate and I are contemplating new furniture for the place now that we’ve ditched the Crossbow, and an IKEA run has come up as one option. Not wanting to burn a weekend, like Tom did, we were thinking alternate plans. Or well I was, Lyle just plain went insane with this missive:
let’s do it. let’s go to ikea after work and get some stuff to re-do the kitchen. i know what we need – i’ll be quick and easy. be back in time for going out or whatever else. here’s what i’m thinkin: we leave at 6, back by 8. not a lot of traffic up 16th street at that hour, 495 for 8 miles or so, in and out of ikea. back before you know it. we do it now and it’s done.
What! Hit 495 at 6pm for 8 miles? That’s two hours in its self. The fool is too green to DC to know any better, but I’m not about to endure the pain of rush hour while he learns the lesson – never drive rush hour! My better plan – Saturday morning, right when IKEA opens, before the madness starts, or late at night, right before it closes, long after the rush hour is gone.
If you had to go to IKEA – and we all hope we never do – when would you go? And which one is better; Potomac Mills or College Park?
Going at night, go College Park. 395 and 95 south of the city are wretched, wretched places.
You and Tom are really scaring me. I was actually considering renovating my kitchen with Ikea cabinets…
I agree with Tom – College Park early when they open or an hour before closing time. Don’t go south – also, a tip: one time I found an item at Ikea College Park that I liked but didn’t buy at the time. After a day of thinking about it, I decide to get it so I went to the Potomac Mills one. It turned out to be $5 more! This was a wall lamp that was $29.95 at College Park but $34.95 at Potomac Mills.
For whatever reason, and I called to ask them why, some items depending on the manager’s whim, are “on sale” (even though with two Ikeas within an hour of each other) at one place but not the other. I don’t know about you – if I can keep $5 in my pocket, it is a beer in my belly later.
You might want to check the prices on the items you want at each store before you head out.
Jenn, they’re nice cabinets. The previous owner of my unit redid the kitchen in Ikea woods, and they turned out very well. Pleasant to look at, they seem to have stood the test of several years of heavy use without a problem *knock on wood laminate*
i myself am partial to the patomac mills ikea — mostly because i live 5 minutes away. they are open decently late, and we go after work pretty frequently. it’s much nicer than having to deal with daytime weekend crowds.
College Park! ALWAYS go to College Park! Two words: Mixing Bowl.
As replied to Tom’s post… College Park…
Easy on and off. Larger (I think) and as you said… prices.
Plus, don’t forget about as-is… usually just worth a trip to oogle there.
We’re planning on eventually Ikea-ifying our Kitchen as well… this is coming from the grandson of a man who made (and still does) make his living from building custom kitchens in northeastern PA. I though I like my grandpa, and think his stuff is nice, you can’t beat Ikea for cost. Typical custom kitchen $17k to $26k. Ikea kitchen – $5k to $12k… half the price… minus some of the plumbing work…
I’m much more a fan of the College Park location; it’s so much easier to get to and is newer and shinier. The only downside is that other people have figured this out and sometimes it’s sold out of what you’re looking for. I’d definitely use their online stock locator to make sure College Park is the winner.
For what it’s worth, I recently bought a new bedroom set (bed, dresser, nightstand) from IKEA and didn’t go through the hell that poor Tom did.
Another vote for College Park, though I am local as well. The garage parking is something that few people take advantage of, but offers much faster access and easy loading via the moving stairways. It also has easy access back onto 495 and if worst comes to worst, you can take Rt. 1 (Rhode Island Ave) back into the city.
Yes, the hidden garage parking has become my new fav. Plus it’s fun to ride the moving walkway, you could have fun for hours just goofing around on it, kind of the adult version of the ballroom for the kids upstaris.
It’s true about the stock… been waiting for NON lights for over a month now, decided to switch to another model since they never seem to come back in stock.