<p>We just furnished my daughter’s law school apartment almost exclusively from IKEA. To the poster who mentioned a power screwdriver - do it! My husband, who has put together more IKEA furniture than he likes to admit, used one for the first time and said it made the process much easier. It’s true you don’t need it, but it helps. He assembled the Hemnes dresser and night table, a desk, dining table and chairs, Expedit bookshelf, Lack coffee table, Poang chair and Extorp sofa (it’s not NYC - the apartment is good-sized). We brought most everything home in our SUV, but had the sofa and bookshelf delivered the next day. It all worked smoothly, but I’d estimate it took him about 12 hours (with her assistance) to assemble everything. Advice to the IKEA uninitiated - open the box, lay out all pieces, including pegs, screws, caps etc. and look at the directions. Left as opposed to right often makes a difference, and if the pictures say to wait to tighten the screws, do it!<br>
We ordered her mattress/box spring from a Sleepy’s where we live and it was delivered in the city where she lives, as scheduled. The apartment is really cute, I could live there!</p>
<p>So we just went to visit our son in NYC, who assembled all his IKEA furniture. He said it was pretty easy after reading the directions…used the power screwdriver, and it looked great. That Hemnes bed, wardrobe and dresser looks like high quality furniture, it’s pretty heavy duty stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks to those who gave great advice!</p>
<p>Ikea items have extremely variable qualities in design and durability. You need to check them out in person and judge. </p>
<p>In general, we regard them as “good temporary” and furnished several apartments with them when we were moving a lot. Some items we kept, but most of them - particularly the do it yourself stuff - we left or sold to the next tenant at a steep discount.</p>
<p>I have a lot of IKEA stuff… bedding, couch, easy chair, dining table, dining chairs, bedsides tables…damn, the list goes on and on! If you choose wisely, you can get lovely durable items; choose poorly, you get overpriced junk. I like to think I choose wisely… ;-)</p>