<p>I agree it is pretty crappy. My D has a desk, and bed from Ikea and while we did move it from one apt to her house, I am tempted to abandon it after she graduates.</p>
<p>Quality is actually less expensive in the long run.</p>
<p>Well I stand corrected-- I don’t know how long it’s been since I checked the website but there is now much more available online than there used to be. I didn’t check the shipping prices, though.</p>
<p>When we were on sabbatical in Leipzig, Germany we furnished our entire 3-bedroom apartment from Ikea–absolutely everything from dishes to furniture! It is a very low-cost way to furnish a place.</p>
<p>Likewise when our son started grad school we furnished much of his first apartment from Ikea. But be warned that sometimes the hardware is missing from the box! Very annoying to unbox the parts and be ready to put it together only to find the packet of hardware missing, and the store over an hour away!</p>
<p>It is also common to find that they don’t have what you want in stock!</p>
<p>I agree that the quality varies a lot, but we’re still using our “Billy” bookcases which must be at least 20 years old.</p>
<p>I may be the only here, but to me, IKEA furniture is terrible quality and a waste of money. We’ve purchased desks for the kids and bookcases. All of the drawers have fallen apart and the backs to the bookcases push off. The look is very cool, the prices are appealing - especially for a first apt, but DON’t waste your money! My brother bought a bed from them last year and, again, junk! My mother, a visitor, couldn’t stand it and insisted on buying a brand new bed/mattress.</p>
<p>OTOH, I like their accessories.</p>
<p>Ikea has its place. My favorite Ikea products are their bookcases. They are cheap, attractive (in a nondescript way), and functional. A drawback is that they are very heavy and easily broken if you try to move them. In addition, shelves 3 ft wide or wider may bow under the weight of heavy objects. Real oak (or other hardwood) is much stronger.</p>
<p>Shipping probably isn’t practical due to their weight. Drive up to an hour or two to the store then haul them back in a wagon, truck, or mini-van. If the nearest store is much farther away, look for other options (including antique stores).</p>
<p>I have woodworking tools, but for the cost of lumber and hardware alone, probably could not beat Ikea prices to build a basic floor-to-ceiling bookcase. Also, engineered wood (“beaver barf”) has the advantage of being dimensionally stable despite changes in temperature/humidity. </p>
<p>Be careful lifting the flat-packed cabinets/shelving. Again, it is very heavy stuff. If you drop it, you could easily damage the contents (or yourself).</p>
<p>I have book cases from IKEA that are still ok 8 years later. Like I said it depends on the build of the bookcase and the usage. The ones we bought are so modular that it won’t break easily. I don’t see how.
EDIT to include the link, we lay them sideway, not standing up like in this link.
<a href=“Products - IKEA”>Products - IKEA;
<p>Great bookcases, watch out for the chairs. It all depends. I am sitting on an Ikea desk chair as I type. I am giving it away to a friend when I pack out next week. It is beginning to squeak a bit but looks cool. My son and his wife bought bookcases and chest of drawers and a bed, their first furniture from Ikea. The young love it.</p>
<p>Their furniture is definitely better than other assembled furniture, but you have to be careful what you purchase, and how you take care of it. We purchased a multi purpose cabinet for our laundry room that has drawers, cabinets, and a closet with a rod to hang coats. After a few years, the rod in the closet broke, and Ikea did not have a replacement. I had to search the net for something that would suffice, which I found. But if I wouldn’t have, that entire space would have been fairly useless. Now we are much more careful about how many, and how heavy the coats are that we hand in there.</p>
<p>My house is about 3 miles away from Ikea. I furnished my room back home, my dormroom, and then my apartment with almost all Ikea stuff. Dirt cheap and durable. I absolutely LOVE Ikea. I also love that many of the desks, shelving units, cabinets, etc are able to be fairly customized to your taste. </p>
<p>I will say that I didn’t like their office chairs. Then again, I don’t like chairs in general so I’m probably biased. </p>
<p>With all that said, I’m not sure if the price would be worth it if you had to ship them. I don’t know how much their shipping costs. If it’s pretty cheap, go for it. If not, you might be able to find cheaper furniture without shipping.</p>
<p>IKEA has some modest resale value, student-to-student. They recognize “IKEA” in the used ad listings.</p>
<p>Another IKEA fan here.</p>
<p>We bought cabinets for daughter’s dorm room three years ago. No problems - three years and two moves down the line.</p>
<p>We like it especially for apartments/young people. HOWEVER, some of the pieces can be quite difficult to put together and the instructions are not clear. H is a VERY handy engineer and it took him and another handy friend of ours hours to put together some of WildChild’s furniture after his recent move back to the east coast. In fact, I flew home to Nashville in the time it took them to build the furniture!</p>
<p>DD wrote a skit in HS where IKEA was the goddess of unreadable directions. Lol it always got a chuckle.</p>
<p>^ That’s pretty true. Ikea directions are worse than worthless lol. They make you more confused! </p>
<p>Google is your friend when it comes to construction haha.</p>
<p>I have had a lot of Ikea furnishings over the years. The quality varies …dressers are pretty bad linens are pretty decent. I think if you look at it as temporary, starter furniture and not expect it to become family heirloom, then it’s all good
We furnished our in law apartment with it, right down to the kitchen cabinets. It looks pretty cool for a garage apartment , but I wouldn’t want it in my house</p>
<p>We’ve had Ikea bookcases in this house for 12 years without problems. My current architecture desk is now 23 years old and has made it through one move. It’s much easier to assemble than most assemble yourself stuff and better designed. We bought a chest of drawers from Target that took hours to put together and fell apart as soon as my son tried to put something in it. I’ve even seen some high end houses that used Ikea to good use in their kitchens. My sister adores her Ikea farmhouse sink and butcherblock counters.</p>
<p>I have a cheap little chest of drawers from IKEA that I’ve had since some time in the 1980’s and I wish it would die, but it won’t! Like everyone has said, the prices are good, but the quality is variable. Also, they run out of things so if you’re searching for something in their showroom, mark it down as well as a second and third choice to be sure that you’ll be able to find at least one down in the warehouse.</p>
<p>They have a little Swedish food shop which is fun. We fight over the frozen, folded Swedish pancakes. The concentrated lingonberry juice and elderflower juice is good too (add to seltzer). They used to sell a Scandinavian brand of mini cinnamon buns (Gifard?) which were great, but now they’ve replaced them with their own brand, which is terrible.</p>
<p>Home delivery by Ikea is fairly inexpensive. Just furnished D’s first apartment at Ikea, $59 to deliver everything, distance about 30 miles from the store.
The assembly took about ten hours for dining, living and bedroom furniture.<br>
Some of three pieces are solid wood</p>
<p>All we got for directions was line drawings.</p>
<p>don’t know about the shipping part. that may get expensive.
I LOVE IKEA! so much fun stuff for good price especially for small apartment living. But we’ve always been able to haul it home in our van.</p>