IKEA Atlanta Store Plan

Here is the floor plan for the Atlanta IKEA store:



Other good info thanks to Jennoconn from the IKEA Fans Forum:

Parking: I always park in the lower level of the deck in either C or D aisles. This is close to the escalator/elevators and the moving ramp when you bring your stuff to your car. They do have family parking but I can never figure out how to get there.

First floor: When you come up the escalator or elevator you stop in the "greetor lobby" they used to always have someone standing there to help but I haven't seen anyone lately. There's a bathroom there and an ATM. To the right is the "ladybug playground" as my daughter calls it. To the left is the cinnamon roll eatery, the checkout lanes and past them the returns and pick-up.

Up the escalator: If you head to the right you'll get the usual path of display rooms --) sofa section --) futons & coffee tables --) chairs --) media & bookcases --) the kitchen displays start and dining tables & chairs --) Kitchens! --) bedrooms --) closet & dressers --) office --) bathrooms --) kids stuff --) then ends at the restaurant with the bathrooms down the hall and the stairs and elevator down to the Marketplace.

Of course I rarely go that way - I go backwards and through the shortcuts.

at the top of the escalator I turn left --) go into the kids area and the 1 st shortcut (between the toys and the kids tables and chairs) which takes you to media then you can follow the path to dining and kitchens. Kithens have been my main focus so usually I'm wiped out and head to the restaurant or down to the marketplace following the same shortcuts.

Downstairs: I don't know the Marketplace as well but I'll give it a try. Kitchen & dining --) rugs & office supplies --) window treatments & textiles --) bedding and bath textiles --) laundry & storage --) lighting & more lighting --) pictures and mirrors --) nick nacks and animal stuff --) baskets & vases --) outdoor & plants & bathrooms. From there you pick up a flatbed cart if you need to get anything in the warehouse. After going through the warehouse you find the seasonal stuff and the beloved As Is room. Check out is next and there are self-serve lanes as well as, standard.

So that's the store but I'd like to add info about the area.

Ikea is part of a new multi-use development called Atlantic Station and is off of the 75/85 connector at 17th street downtown. It has condo/loft/apartments buildings, a "strolling mall" with all the stores having sidewalk entrances. There's a Dillard's and all the standard Bath & Body Works etc. There's a multiplex movie theatre and a number of upscale/trendy restaurants and bars. see http://www.atlanticstation.com/ if you'd like more info.

Smaller House Plan

OK, reality has set in - the house has to be smaller! Here is a smaller version of my house plan - basically, I've squared up the basic house and chopped off the downstairs bedrooms and extra bath. But I could not make this work since there was no place for our study (what we now have as a computer room/office and library). Before, one of the downstairs bedrooms was going to be the study.

So I added a study and I've moved the screened porch to the southeast corner, behind the study. This lets me simplify the roofline and if we wanted to someday enclose that porch, it will be easier. With that in mind, we'll probably not brick inside the screened porch, just use Hardie lap siding. Right away, we would not have a porch on the east side of the house, but I'll probably have them pour a concrete pad on the east side of the house. Then down the road, we could roof over that side for an open porch - or put on awnings to direct rain away from the doors on that side.

Now the plan will be to go ahead and finish out the bath upstairs and maybe one of the upstairs bedrooms. I have not drawn up the upstairs plan since my idiotic program has decided to stop showing me where the cutoff for 8' walls is. Before we had gables out the front and back, but I've decided that to save money we'll do one wide gable with a hipped roof only to the east (back). This means no Jack & Jill bath up stairs because the plumbing would be complex, but that is OK.

This is not a finished plan by any means, but here's the changed design:



This cuts the downstairs from 2270 sq. ft. to 1978 sq. ft. Frankly, I have no clue how big the upstairs will be - my sketchy plan right now is about 700sq. ft. but I do not know if that is realistic considering the roofline. I consider the minimum for a bedroom to be about 12x12' and a bath about 5x8' so that would be a minimum of about 350 sq. ft.