A sitcom staple is the “locked in room/locked in mall” trope. A group or a couple get locked in a shopping mall, room or a store and hi jinx are ensured, including an emotional realisation, odd bonding activity, some sort of character development, a chase scene, doing some competitive sport, and a dressing up portion set to an appropriate rock ‘n’ roll jam. Since my whole life is about closing the gap between TV and real life – sleeping overnight in a store was definitely on my bucket list.
When Katie who was covering IKEA’s The Big Sleepover for her blog Art of Sleep invited me to come sleep overnight with in her IKEA Lakeside, I was on it like a tramp on chips.
Thankfully I am not in this video as I was hiding from the cameras.
The competition was run on Facebook by IKEA through the Sweepstakes app to win the chance to have a sleepover in IKEA for you and a friend. When I mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook, EVERYONE was jealous. Even more jealous then when I went to the EMAs and was in the same room as Justin Bieber. It’s the little things isn’t it?
Being press, we were picked up and taken there and upon arrival got a goody bag of stuff, including an eye mask, wind up torch, biscuits for midnight snacky times, toothbrush and toothpaste, and towels that we would need for sleepy times and then told to get into our pyjamas (not provided) and slippers which were provided. I wanted to rebel, but Katie told me to behave myself. I was really hoping someone would be wearing a silky inappropriate negligee, but alas, I was disappointed.
Hey guys, you’re missing out waking up next to this in the morning! (I’m talking about myself Katie)
Heading up to the restaurant to be pumped full of bullar (Swedish buns), biscuits, and cocoa – we then picked bedlinen (to keep) to go make our beds.
Myself and Katie made a plan to leg it to get the best bed, but it turns out we didn’t have to. Being press, we got an actual room suite. Ok, the ‘rooms’ in IKEA only have three walls and people kept wandering in, but and we had a modicum of privacy and we didn’t have to make our beds which I flaunted a lot. To everyone. I’m a dick, I know. Ah schaudenfraude.
Haha plebs. I also picked this bedlinen to take home.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t use our own bathroom. But we had our own Christmas tree!
IKEA laid on some very nice treats, which are things you would usually do on a sleepover, such as nails, a film, massages, but also a sleep expert whom we unfortunately didn’t get to regale with our sleeping issues, and um, a “celebrity” reading a bedtime story as well as cheerful IKEA staff bringing around cocoa and non- alcoholic mulled wine (in case anyone got lairy). I started chatting to some other people who had won the competition, but I ran into a Twihard when I was getting my nails done, who was really offended when I started laughing really hard about when she found out she would be her friend’s +1 at the cinema during “Breaking Dawn”. Whoops.
We got our nails did, chilled in our boudoir, kept bringing random stuffed toys into our adobe, and hissed at people coming in (I didn’t hiss, but close enough). Lewis from IKEA told us that we had inadvertently picked the nicest bedroom suite (and most expensive). Score! We kept drinking tea, watching episodes of Community on my BlackBerry PlayBook, and eating biscuits. A bad idea, I found. Not really the best idea for a narcoleptic and someone who suffers from frequent insomnia.
Lights out was at 11, and I was completely exhausted so I fell asleep straightaway, and then woke up at 1.30am. Bit odd to wake up surrounded by price tags. I then stayed awake until 5.30am. No wonder I had issues sleeping, I was hopped up on sugar.
We had to be out of bed at 6.30am. So I went on a little wander, as much of a wander you can have, because there was security and IKEA people around, taking us to a la bathroom, while I asked strange questions to the night watchman, including if anyone had ever died in IKEA (they hadn’t), and if he ever caught anyone in flagrante which he admitted he did. I didn’t see anyone indulging in sexy times in IKEA beds that weren’t theirs, but there was a lot of cuddly sleeping going on.
After telling me quite firmly that we wouldn’t be spooning, Katie kept inching closer and closer to me in the night. She says it was because I was hogging the quilt. Lies and mistruths. Katie was much impressed by the memory foam mattress, since my mum has one, I’m used to the fact it moulds to your butt.
After a ‘gentle’ awakening at 6.30am (read: “soothing” sounds over the loudspeaker) we dressed, had brekkie and then was taken back to civilisation, and I gifted my parents with all my IKEA treats. My mum asked if I had fun and was careful, and I responded to her that I did.
Thanks to IKEA and The Cake Group for inviting me to IKEA’s The Big Sleepover.
Photos taken on a BlackBerry Bold 9900 courtesy of FRANK PR.
