So Tess and I have these left over IKEA bookshelves (the Billy model; yes I know that sounds vaguely sensual) from our old house. They survived the trip and so I thought I'd use them to cover up the dance studio-like floor-to-ceiling mirrors in our front room by truning them into quasi-builtins. We went down to IKEA, got a corner unit and two other Billy shelves in the same color only to find that, once assembled and standing next to our legacy shelving, they don't match what we have in the slightest. It's not even close to the same color. It looks like two different kinds of wood even!

Up yours, you Swedish-like people!

So that means I have to go to IKEA again (about a 3 hour process) to grab two more shelves and hope they are the "new birch veneer" color as well. And it also means that I'm left with another two Billy shelves which will have no home.

We don't have what you would call a lot of space for shelving (I know that sounds odd, but so is the house), and I already have another two Billy shelves (in dark brown) that were destined for the spare bedroom. Actually, there's one more set (non-Billy; a model with deeper shelves) floating around as well. And a half-height Billy, too, that was left over from my old office. So that's, what? 5 ½ extra shelves which need a place to live?

I guess I can take the lighter color ones, the deep shelf can go in the spare room, one Billy can stay in the garage, and 1 ½ shelves get a "Free to a good home" sign on them and are placed on the curb for the Oompa-Loompaz in Da Hood to take away.

I like IKEA and all, but enough is enough. I should have just custom built shelves in front of the mirrors. Probably would have been faster.