Ikea is set on infiltrating your lives a little more: The Swedish furniture retailer and Swedish meatball pusher is rolling out a line of all-in-one entertainment systems, complete with flatscreen TV, WiFi, Blu-Ray/DVD player, speakers, and USB and HDMI ports... and the one remote will work through the cabinets! more ›

Rush Limbaugh is making good on his promise to "get out of New York totally," and has finalized the $11.75 million sale of his Upper East Side apartment to "international purchasers." And Limbaugh was apparently so eager to relocate to Florida that he left the apartment furnished and decorated. Luckily, the buyers were reportedly "especially attracted to the richly designed space." Now they have the luxury of waking up every morning and looking at cherubs holding flowered garlands right above their heads! more ›

As the state attempts to build a better proposal for June's second "Race to the Top" funding deadline, maybe they should think about cheaper chairs. Though New York's initial proposal for $831 million in school funding was hindered by lack of union support and charter reform, it also included requests for 24 "executive chairs" that cost $550 each, nine $3,000 desks and 15 printers that each cost over $1,500, according to the Post. The proposal came in 15th of the 16 finalists, with one judge saying the projected expenses "call into question NY's judgment on responsible stewardship of funds." Damn, did he just shatter your entire world view, or what? more ›

As part of their latest ad campaign, IKEA has furnished the Metro stations in Paris. Off the top of our heads we can think of a few reasons why this would be a horrible idea in New York City (bed bugs, theft, all sorts of bodily fluids soaking into the seat cushions)—but at the same time, it does look pretty cool. [via Fresh Home] more ›

Mom-and-pop stores are the main casualty of a huge blaze that overtook a block in Queens Saturday morning. It took 168 firemen to calm the four-alarm fire, which was under control by 1:30 pm. Meanwhile 54 apartments were evacuated in a nearby building. The fire got going at Acme Furniture in Jackson Heights around 10 am, reports NY1; people as far away as Long Island City could see the billowing smoke. It quickly spread down a row of shops on 37th Street to a dry cleaner, a shore repair shop, a liquor store, an art supply store, a packaging store and a purveyor of beauty supplies. "You have a lot of that wood furniture, finishings on the furniture. As it extended to the other stores, other materials got involved and let the fire escalate quickly," said New York Fire Department Deputy Assistant Chief Robert Maynes. more ›

A couple of days ago, NY Post columnist Cindy Adams made her opinion of the Times Square chairs be known, saying loud and clear in her headline: "It's Broadway—Not Rockaway!" She went on, saying "the hallway to the Street of Dreams is now Beach 34th Street? What's next? Sand? A boardwalk?" She's worried that the tourists will now only see "Sprawling, bused-in out-of-towners with Coke cans and brown paper bags flat out on camp chairs noshing and burping and snoozing and playing checkers in the center of the capital of the world." more ›

It's almost the end of the road for those cheap lawn chairs scattered throughout the Broadway pedestrian plazas. After incurring enormous vitriol from likes of NY Post columnist Andrea Peyser, who condemned "the flimsy furniture that littered the streets like a going-out-of-business sale," the Times Square Alliance is finally taking action to appease the haters. Some new signs have been placed around the car-free sections of Broadway to explain what the future holds:

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