Wok This Way

Went up the tollway on a CollageMama's Excellent Adventure to the new IKEA store in Frisco Saturday before last. The store is huge, even by Texas standards, measuring 310,000 square feet and having 1400 parking spaces, nearly all of them full. How big is that?

• Typical McMansion built on a teardown/infill lot in Dallas--4000-6000 square feet.
• Home Depot just received approval to build a 132,000 square foot store at the corner of Parker and Custer in Plano.
• Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano's megachurch complex--800,000 square feet.
• Reliant Stadium, down in Houston, the home of the Houston Texans NFL team--1,900,000 square feet.
• The Pentagon--6,500,000 square feet.

Arrows painted on the floor guide customers through the two floors of IKEA. I would definitely be afraid to leave the trail! It could provoke Stanley/Livingstone nightmares.

The most intriguing features of the store are the four model homes. The homes showcase multifunction items and good design to make living in 300, 600, 900, and 1200 square foot spaces seem not only possible, but desirable.

It's time to think about the fuelish spaces we heat and air condition, along with the brontosauran vehicles we drive. This comment on Dallas homes is from the New York Times of all places! "Less space isn't as much of a problem as bad space." (Mil Bodron)

I left IKEA slightly dazed with a $9.99 wok and a blue oven mitt. By the time I found the Buick I was quite spaced out. This field trip was well worth the ticket price. So much to throw away. So much to organize....