<p>A hearty second to Kajon’s recommendation of the poang chair.<br>
We have two of them on our screen porch and love them…super comfortable and not hard to assemble. </p>
<p>We bought an Ikea tv console / matching shelves to surround it. It took my engineer husband many hours to put together. Doing the drawers was the hardest part. My having to listen to him curse those drawers was the second hardest part.</p>
<p>Also bought a glass top table w/ four chairs for our porch .towel hooks for the bathroom and mirrors that we hung over our bathroom sinks.</p>
<p>All Ikea instructions are pictures only…no written directions.</p>
<p>I would check out Craigslist to see if your D can get the same or similar items there instead of new at Ikea. Our S got many of his items 50% off by buying it on Craigslist instead of Ikea and was able to sell them when he was done for the price he paid or more! Worth trying, in any case.</p>
<p>Don’t know how much you are planning to spend but we furnished DS’ apartment for under $950 (including the delivery fee) at IKEA. It included bed, sofa, night stand, dresser, tv stand, desk w/hutch/chair, dining table w/2 chairs and lamp. Due to time, we called in the order and they gathered it for us. Everything held up for 2 years and when DS’ moved out, everything was donated to a church group.</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper that the zig-zag habitrail layout (on the display room floor and below in the Marketplace where they have all the smaller stuff) is indeed annoying, but there are maps every 50 feet or so that show shortcuts. The first time through, it’s good to follow the arrows on the floors; after that, when you know what you’re looking for, shortcuts rule!</p>
<p>Also, you can check your individual Ikea (on the website I think), but at ours in Brooklyn, they have Zipcars and other rental vehicles.</p>
<p>The giant blue bags (I think they are $.49 or $.79) are terrific for schlepping stuff from the car to the house, or laundry from the machine to the living quarters. Great shoulder straps–you can carry an amazing amount of stuff.</p>
<p>It would be helpful to know if the OP I tends to buy big stuff or just the little stuff. Do you need furniture or do you need to buy linens and storage and kitchen utensils and stuff ??</p>
<p>Our Ds also loved the Poang chairs at school! They have held up for 6 years now! And we also have the giant Paris at night framed photo for $49. Super deal!</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions. She needs just about everything, except linens, although I am not necessarily committed to getting everything at Ikea . . . It’s hard to know what the best balance of quality/cost/time is to completely furnish the house. I will avoid particleboard (mostly because of the chemicals rather than quality), but I don’t know whether it makes sense to get the high-quality mahogany desk from Craigslist (assuming we could find one) because it’s very doubtful that she’ll be in the same city for more than the next year or two. </p>
<p>I will definitely look for the desk, chairs, Swedish meatballs and giant blue bags, and avoid anything with drawers.</p>
<p>I just remembered (or should I say, I looked around the house!):
dish towels
hampers and trash baskets
frying pans–several levels of quality
everyday water glasses</p>
<p>If you can go twice, do a walk-through, take a catalog home (maybe you can go to the website and get one mailed?) and make a list.</p>
<p>LOL at the allow 4-5 hours. DH and son went to Ikea in Pittsburg to furnish an apartment. They had less than half an hour before it closed. I worked the computer here in NY while they tore through the warehouse section while I told them which aisle the various stuff was in. </p>
<p>DS and DD furnished whole living spaces with CL items…and when they left after graduating offered the stuff to the next renter for a good price. It was a win win…we didn’t have to move it out, and that person didn’t need to move anything in.</p>
<p>My son bought some IKEA pieces for his last house. He took NONE to his current residence…sold them on CL. He is furnishing with solid wood from the used furniture stores near him. As he said…the important thing was a bed…which he did NOT buy at IKEA. Everything else was gravy.</p>