<p>You might be surprised by the ease of assembly for some items… the couch I assembled was by far the easiest thing I’ve assembled, easier than the shelves even. All I had to do was screw the back to the base, screw the arm rests on, and twist the legs onto the bottom of the arm rests. It took 5 minutes Not sure if my new couch will be quite that simple but I’m guessing it will be similar. The queen bed frame and the dresser were not so very much fun.</p>
<p>We decided on the karlstad loveseat with chaise lounge configuration, and I think I am giving up on the end table and getting the LACK coffee table to go with it (unfortunate name.) Just need to take a look at the room and make sure that much furniture won’t overpower the room, and decide on colors. Our room will be a medium/dark blue color with white trim and beige/cream carpet, with “black/brown” wood furniture, with navy sheets and a purple comforter on the bed-- think jewel tone. I wanted to get the white couch to brighten things up, maybe with navy or purple throw pillows to tie in the colors, and get the black/brown coffee table to match the woods we already have. Now I am wondering if the white will be out of place. It worked in my head…</p>
<p>As a dog and cat household , we have upholstered furniture from ikea . It is sort of disposable quality, but I have a couple of pieces that I’ve had for a decade and they are ok. I’ve seen better, but it it nice to be able to wash the slipcovers</p>
<p>Bringing this thread back up because we agreed to furnish our sons apartment (bedroom) as a graduation present. I am now in IKEA Hell. Hate decorating, shopping, no particular taste (same with H and S), but we need to get it done. It’s a nice apartment, decent sized bedroom, so probably cardboard boxes and sleeping bag is not the best idea.</p>
<p>Apparently we can’t go to our local IKEA and have them ship things over to the other side of the country, but we would like to get it done before he moves, and have them deliver it the day after he gets there. So I’m thinking that the best idea would be to visit IKEA, find some stuff that works, order it online to get delivered. From reading this thread, I’m thinking to stay away from particle board and super heavy furniture if possible. Maybe pine? Any ideas? Is IKEA the best idea to furnish an entire bedroom? This is really painful.</p>
<p>I bought a light colored dresser, 3 drawers, and bedside table with 2 drawers for my son’s bedroom. It works fine but you have to be a bit handy to put the stuff together.</p>
<p>&&Hmm, does a bit handy mean a weekend worth of construction, massive irritation, and 127 parts? Or is it not too bad? Perhaps it depends upon the person, thank God I don’t have to put it together!</p>
<p>The males in my family are pretty handy. Each dresser was together in a couple of hours. The directions are pretty good but still, you need to be able to line up things and the bolts sometimes slip inside areas so they are hidden when the furniture is done. You could always buy something small for your home, open it up and see what is involved. Return it if it seems too much.</p>
<p>Our S assembled all the Ikea stuff he owned. He was dismayed when we helped him move and were helping disassemble things he felt could be moved whole. </p>
<p>I am NOT mechanical at all but had no trouble with the Ikea stuff, as long as there were the right number of all parts for everything.</p>
<p>I suspect my kids are better at putting things together than I. He’d probably ignore the directions, and just figure out what makes sense. But some things are just too much of a hassle to bother with.</p>
<p>I still say that Ikea is great for the “ready to go” things - chairs, side tables that are one piece, linens, office supplies, pillows, easy to assemble bookshelves, simple beds etc.</p>
<p>But when you are talking dressers, pages of visual directions, etc. - just go to your local resale furniture shop and you will pay less and save yourself a lot of time and headache.</p>
<p>busdriver, if you son has a moving package as part of his employment, you can buy the Ikea furniture and have the movers deliver them. My son had all his moving expenses paid for when he moved to NYC and we went to buy some Ikea furniture and bulk items from Costco as part of his move.</p>
<p>Also trying to get together the list of what he might need, don’t want to get a whole bunch of stuff that he doesn’t need, but at least the essentials.</p>
<p>The room is narrow and long, 7’ X 18", no closet, but plenty of shelves. Think the other kids have living room/kitchen items, so maybe just some silverware and additional plates/cups/glasses would help in that regard.</p>
<p>Smaller bed frame/mattress–twin or full
Dresser
Wardrobe
Table or desk
Comfortable chair or recliner
Table lamp and floor lamp
Laundry basket
Garbage can
Sheets/comforter/pillows/mattress pad
Towels</p>
<p>Anything critical and obvious that I’m missing?</p>
<p>cbreeze, that’s an interesting thought. I doubt that my son even asked or thought about that. He didn’t look much past the salary. That would be awesome if we could get it all assembled and moved from here. I am a huge Costco fan, plus nothing wrong with Goodwill or Value Village, you can find some deals. Will definitely check into that.</p>
<p>Problem is, abasket, it would be easy to buy stuff assembled and move it ourself…here. In NYC with no car, easier to get it delivered.</p>
<p>We have the complete Hemnes black/brown bedroom set… queen bed, two nightstands, short dresser, and tall dresser. We’ve had it for two years now and it is pretty much as good as new and has survived a big move. I have a desk too that is mint condition after two years. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy their wooden furniture. We bought it as our “first” set because I wanted something that matched and we couldn’t afford the more expensive set I wanted, but now that we have this I don’t feel compelled to get another set at all.</p>
<p>They have some bed frames that have drawers on the bottom, or separate pieces on wheels that you can wheel under the bed to function as a drawer. In a 7’ room, I think that’s sometihing I would look into no matter how long the room is!</p>
<p>That is nice furniture, ema. I looked at it online, but the smallest bed they have is a full size. It is a very narrow room so he has to be careful, but maybe he could position the bed sideways, at one end of the room. Really makes it hard to do this with only the dimensions of the room, and not actually looking at it. Or he could order a bedframe from a different company, it’s not like they have to match, but the dresser looks very nice.</p>
<p>Five years ago, S bought the Hemnes set plus a couch that he used in 2-3 apartments up and down 4 flights without elevators. the set spent one year in the garage, then my D moved it all up to her college for her off-campus apartment. She added a bedside table. It is back home now in her room and looks great.
So, yes, it is pretty sturdy stuff and is attractive. However, things are a little wobbly after all these moves. Has anyone done the ‘retightening the screws and bolts’ as is suggested? Do we have to take everything apart?</p>
<p>When my D and her roommate moved into their 5th floor walk up in NYC her roommate had bedroom furniture delivered from IKEA. The two girls actually put the furniture together themselves. My D has lived in 3 NYC apartments so she is quite handy!</p>
<p>He probably will have to do the bed sideways at one end.</p>
<p>There is a store here in pa that I like. You can buy furniture by the room for great rates. I’m not sure if they deliver all the way to NYC but I’d bet he could rent a truck and drive it there.</p>
<p>Real furniture too not particle board.</p>
<p>I bought my couches there for about 400 combined</p>
<p>^^Ah, another vote for the hemnes at ikea. We will look closely at them. They looked a little heavy, but I guess for real wood, that’s what one would expect.</p>
<p>Yep, NYC. Online it says that ikea will deliver it to his apt for $99, so I think that’s pretty decent, for an entire room. Since none of us are shoppers, he agreed with me that it would be easiest to just go to our local store before he leaves, order it online and schedule it to be delivered the day after he gets there.</p>
<p>bus…normally I would say your list sounds good, but…it sounds like a lot of stuff in a very small space. You may want to do floor plan and plot furniture on it. A single bed at
one end of room will leave a space of about 7 x 14 for dresser, wardrobe, desk plus chair, etc. If the room has a lot of shelves, is the dresser needed? And does he really need a desk in his room?<br>
If he/you are assembling, get Ikea’s electric drill–helped speed up the assembly. Also, in addition to delivery, you can also arrange for IKEA to assemble items at his apartment. D’s roommate’s parents couldn’t whip that credit card out fast enough when they heard this…and after assembling bed, drawers, storage unit, headboard, I wish we’d done that!</p>
<p>busdriver, I have a bedroom that width (also in NYC, floor-through in a brownstone in Brooklyn) and a full bed. But I just have the mattress and box spring on one of those metal frames on wheels. It leaves just over 2 feet on one side, which is enough.</p>