Those experienced with IKEA

Parent Cafe
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<p>We have a fair amount of Ikea furniture, and most of it lasted years. I don’t like their upholstered furniture (sofas) – they have never felt comfortable to me. I don’t like it for my living room or dining room, but for office bookcases, desks, etc., it’s been fine. We’ve always put it together ourselves. Just bought some outdoor furniture from Ikea this weekend.</p>

<p>What I’ve discovered is that the furniture doesn’t move that well – if it stays put it’s fine, but it’s very heavy to move, and it just doesn’t like to be moved. But none of it fell apart in our last 2 moves. There is a lot of it on Craigslist - I wouldn’t buy it assuming it would be easy to sell, because there does seem a lot out there. </p>

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<p>^That is true. I still haven’t managed to get rid of my Hemnes queen bed frame, used only for two weeks, and I’ve been trying to GIVE it away. </p>

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<p>I am on the side of never buying Ikea again. I am good at putting stuff together, I do a lot of handyman stuff, can do woodworking and so forth, and quite honestly, they aren’t what they used to be. The instructions are of the generalized picture image type, that are a pain in the neck no matter what you order (I put together a screen room I got from Sam’s club a couple of years ago that is really nice and well made, but the instructions were horrible) from anyone…</p>

<p>That said, though, the last couple of things I bought from Ikea were crap and I had to do a lot of fabricating to get them together well. Holes were drilled wrong, the finish over the pressboard was already peeling, and a lot of parts were missing. On one piece (a bookshelf/shelf unit kind of thing), the side pieces were not the same size, one was shorter than the other, and since those were the pieces is rested on, was kind of leaning tower of Pisa.</p>

<p>The other problem with Ikea is things like the tables and beds are not standard sizes, which can make getting mattresses difficult, they are not using standard size for single/double, least they weren’t last time I looked at a bed there. </p>

<p>If I buy put it together stuff, I generally look for Sauder Wood working stuff. It is put together the way Ikea is, ie uses the locking cams and such, but the last couple of items I bought from them (a computer hutch and one for my stereo components) went to together well and has held up really well. Sometimes places like Target or Wal Mart or Sam’s club have some decent stuff as well</p>

<p>What is worse is that IME Ikea’s customer service stinks, they basically make all this big noise at being customer friendly and that has not been my experience. Trying to get missing parts, or getting stuff that was done wrong replaced was a hassle, when I talked to either the store of Ikea directly all I got was 'take it back to where you bought it, so they can inspect it"…which is ridiculous when you have wall units and such that are heavy, or where the Ikea is a fairly long drive. Other places asked me to send a picture of the item that was defective, which I was glad to do, but Ikea makes it difficult, probably figuring you will give up in frustration. </p>

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<p>D once bought a coffee table from Ikea that was about $25. It was used in several apts and moved to 3 different states. She really was sick of it but couldn’t bring herself to get rid of it because it was still in great shape. This after multiple roommates and moves. Finally donated to Goodwill : ) Other stuff from there–not so lucky. Swivel chair- thumbs down. Roommate bought sofa from there and all the girls agreed it was hideously uncomfortable.
We bought a cheap white “iron” bedside table for under $25. Still looks surprisingly cute and in perfect condition.
Agree that overall their wood furniture is HEAVY. </p>

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<p>Like musicprnt, the stuff we bought from Walmart was all Sauder. It went together much like Ikea’s, but was of a better quality.</p>

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<p>It’s interesting that you said this, because I absolutely DO NOT have spatial skills. Way back in the day, when we’d take standardized tests in elementary school and junior high, I would DREAD the spatial skills sections. There would be a box unfolded. You had to look at all of the unfolded boxes to see which one would actually fold up into a real box. I could not for the life of me figure it out, and it was very upsetting to me to see other kids just whizzing through these tests with no problem. I usually ended up just guessing.</p>

<p>This is one of the reasons why buying several rooms worth of furniture to put together is just not floating my boat.</p>

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<p>That’s the brand of the desk I bought. Still haven’t put it together, but glad to hear it’s of better quality than the IKEA stuff. </p>

<p>Also, surprisingly, I just looked it up on Walmart’s website, the Walmart has the same desk, but for about $150 more than I paid for it at the nice furniture store. </p>

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<p>Well, the feedback has been interesting. I’m starting to get the feeling that Ikea may not be as good as it once was. Some of you talk about being happy with the quality for pieces bought many years ago.</p>

<p>Well, I may pick up a few pieces such as a cabinet to set the TV on, or some side tables or book shelves. I had already decided against buying a sofa or chair there.</p>

<p>Thanks for the tips on Walmart. Who knew?</p>

<p>I also plan to visit some consignment stores in my area. Dallas has so much shopping, you could live here for months and not see all the stores.</p>

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<p>We furnished DS’s first apartment mostly with things bought at Target and Walmart. We still have a cute little drop leaf table and two chairs in his bedroom here. Got bookshelves, end tables, TV table, desk at Target. Yes, needed to be assembled. Husband did that. Rugs and curtains came from Big lots. Bed from a mattress store…that luckily had a gorgeous solid wood dresser that was “damaged” for $50 (scratch on the back side of the front leg, and they fixed it before delivery). </p>

<p>DS is currently furnishing his new apartment with great items from resale stores. He has gotten some very god quality solid wood, mid century items for some great prices…and he is having fun.</p>

<p>I would get your daughter a bed, bed frame, and kitchen table/chairs. If she is going to live there, maybe she would like to personalize it herself. </p>

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<p>I think the lower end IKEA stuff is not great. Some of the less low end stuff is better. I love the expedia book cases (the “6x6 boxes”) and have many (MANY!) of them. Echoing that I wouldn’t plan on moving what you buy from house to house to house. </p>

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<p>This house has an enormous living room. I saw those box shelves used as a room divider on Houzz.com, which would be cool in this room to divide it into TV room and possibly desk/study area. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.houzz.com/photos/9341304/My-Houzz--York-Avenue-Apartment-eclectic-family-room-new-york”>My Houzz: Sweet Sophistication for a Manhattan Studio - Transitional - Family Room - New York - by Corynne Pless | Houzz;

<p><a href=“Living Room - Living Room - Other | Houzz”>Living Room - Living Room - Other | Houzz;

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<p>My D did put her ikea bed, dresser, desk and bookcase together herself when she was a sophomore although she had to makes modifications so it could be easily taken apart again, necessary because she moved from an apt to a house to another house.
We’ll see if it makes it back home again but I am tired just thinking about it.</p>

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<p>Homes in this college town always sell quicker if you have some decent looking furniture in it to sweeten the package. So I’m not counting on any of this to come with her, which is why I’m not insistent on it being good enough to last 10 years or something. But I also don’t want it falling apart quickly, either.</p>

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<p>Yeah, that’s how I feel about the prospect of having to put an entire house full of furniture together with an Allen wrench and hard-for-my-brain-to-comprehend picture instructions.</p>

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<p>Ha, if you’re not spatially blessed, this whole decorating thing becomes that much harder. About Ikea- yes, we had a drawer front come loose. But we just took it out and retraced our steps, so to say. Fine. </p>

<p>Funny thing about WalMart- for what I’ve been looking for, lately, they beat Ebay/Amazon. Sometimes their actual desisgn is just different enought that they can shave off a few dollars- need to be aware. </p>

<p>I don’t think Ikea bed frames are at all designed for conventional mattresses. Dense foam, maybe. But they told me the frames are designed for their mattresses or mattress sets.</p>

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<p>OH! Re the Houzz set-up-- that’s where you have to be absolutely sure the unit is stable, won’t wobble-- or you brace it to the side wall. (Can you tell I lived in CA long enough to know about things possibly falling?)
ps. beautiful pix. I like Houzz.</p>

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<p>IKEA used to have European-sized beds and bedding but no more–they have twin-full-queen-king. No twin-long for college students, though!</p>

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<p>We have a queen size “Trump” innerspring and memory foam pillow topped mattress that fits just fine in our ikea bed frame complete with box spring. I think those are serta mattresses, not sure. No problem. I think we bought the frame in 2011, not sure what they sold before that. </p>

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<p>My husband and I have built a ton of IKEA stuff, including an entire kitchen. Some stuff is easy to build (book shelves, the kitchen cabinets) and some is really tough (glass shelves in a normal book case.). The stuff that is hard to put together seems like it originally wasn’t engineered as a whole, and in the end it looks like that. So beware of stuff you find on the IKEA floor that requires lots of different numbered pieces.</p>

<p>You might check out Pier One, I love their stuff, and their are really comfy chairs and couches, though they are more small scale. Home Goods also has great deals on stuff.</p>

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<p>I have a beautiful antique armoire with beveled mirror doors. Those doors are so heavy, I always worried the whole thing could fall onto someone, particularly my small children, so we bolted it to the wall behind it with a molly bolt. Looking at those photos of the shelves made me think we would need to do the same thing with these shelves-brace each unit to each other, and then the whole to the wall. You just verified that worry.</p>

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<p>All three kids have furnished their first apartment from Ikea - my son posted a hilarious time lapse video of his progress at building the bed only to discover he had purchased the wrong size mattress a few years ago, and I think my husband can put stuff together in his sleep at this point. The delivery service is great, but I haven’t tried the assembly service. That said, D2 has found that Target has alternative cheap furniture that she prefers.</p>