I ran across this same article a few short hours after my fiancee and I spent the morning at our first Ikea trip together, and I chuckled. There’s a mattress that we are seriously considering buying from there, and I don’t have any real qualms about the quality.
My ex-wife and I bought tons of furniture from Ikea over the years. I won’t claim that it was all great (the cheap stuff tends to be…well…cheap), but the items that we spent good money on seemed to last and do what they were supposed to do. I wouldn’t use Ikea as my exclusive furniture store (in fact, we just bought a bedroom, dining room and living room set from somewhere else), but we’re still considering buying a couple of key pieces from Ikea.
The best thing I’ve got from Ikea is this high-friction matting stuff you use in your cutlery drawer in place of those partitioned tray things. Just put all your utensils in the drawer, and they’ll stay where they are rather than sliding around.
It’d be impractical if I had loads of silverware, but this way I can have all my knives and forks in pretty tessellating patterns
Their glassware is so inexpensive, it’s practically criminal. I bought 100 IKEA champagne flutes for my wedding for about half the cost it would have been for me to rent glasses or buy plastic ones.
For the price of 2 Pottery Barn glasses we bought whole sets of 12. We outfitted ourselves with a large set of party plates, glasses and pitchers for under $50.
Maybe I could have found something just as cheap at big lots, but I don’t feel like searching high and low for a good deal.
I don’t shop much at IKEA since the one ‘local’ store is nearly an hour from my house. But a few thoughts on two of the ‘rules’:
Particleboard won’t last forever, but it’ll last awhile if it’s not taking too much of a beating. I recently ditched a particleboard bookcase that I bought ca. 1986 and had been my main bookcase for about the next 14-15 years, until we got some solid wood bookcases. Then it spent another decade as a storage cabinet in the basement. I’m still using a particleboard-and-cardboard computer hutch on a daily basis that I bought sometime in the early part of the last decade - best guess, ~2004. I’ve put in some extra screws, but it’s not sagging or threatening to fall apart anywhere.
I’ve had similar experiences with other particleboard furniture, and the price is usually right for something I’d expect to last several years, but not forever.
Knives: I got a set at Wallyworld - one of those sets with a baker’s dozen of knives and other tools in a wooden block - for about $12 on a Black Friday in the mid-1990s. A couple of the steak knives have died when their blades broke loose from their handles, but the rest are in fine shape and cut wonderfully.
Getting a cheap set is rolling the dice, but one win is all you need for quite awhile.
I got 2 Hemnes dressers there for the kids about 5 years ago. The drawer tracks all bent and fell off, and the joints all began pulling apart despite regular maintenance, after just a short time. Being particle board inside, there’s not really any way to repair stuff like that easily. Having lost the original receipt, I knew I was out of luck, but I’d ask anyway. When I talked to Ikea about replacements, they said that unless I could prove they were bought there, forget it. I said, “They’re Ikea Hemnes dressers, of course they were bought there.” They said, “Well, what if they were bought in the scratch-and-dent section? Then we wouldn’t be responsible for them.” I said that even so, that would have nothing to do with all the drawer tracks being crap, and that the ones on the floor no longer even used the same drawer runners anymore. They still refused to do anything about it. I wasn’t really surprised, but still…
Cot, sheepskin rug, bedding, curtain (handmade by me from some pretty Ikea fabric and a blackout lining bought elsewhere), Poang armchair and footstool (a Godsend when breastfeeding and those nights when she just would not sleep) and various storage solutions.
Cheap and practical, and unlike my friend who blew the budget at the chi-chi baby store, I won’t panic if she pukes on the rug or the duvet or jumps so hard in the cot that the baseboard breaks. My friend, in contrast, had a conniption fit when she got -shock-horror- poop on the very expensive changing mat she bought- form not exactly married with function there.
Sometimes cheap textiles are perfectly adequate.
Muslins, cleaning rags and facecloths being a perfect example.
I bought a bundle of 10 facecloths for £3 and use one for taking my face off at night- then chuck it in the washbasket after my morning shower. I don’t have to care if is stained by make-up- long term it is cheaper than wipes and more hygienic than a single facecloth that is re-used multiple time.
We also have some nice cushion covers on the throw pillows our non-Ikea sofas- I don’t intend to keep them for more than a year or two- why would I spend a fortune? As Ikea uses standard sizes, I know I can get replacement covers any time I want for minimal outlay any time I want to brighten up my living room.
Does anyone else out there have the HUSAR solid pine bookshelves? My husband and I totally love them – our entire house is outfitted in them – and now they don’t seem to make them anymore. We had to buy a couple of Billy’s recently and it just wasn’t the same. Grrrr.
ETA: irishgirl, same with our Little One! Including a solid wood stepped storage unit that is going to be fun for her to sit on when she gets older (and is strong enough to hold mr. hunter’s weight).
Do not buy any fabric materials that need washing, from Ikea.
Needs washing: sheets, aprons, placemats, napkins, throw rugs.
Doesn’t need washing (generally): decorative doilies, roller blind type things, decorative wall hangings.
In short, and fabric item from Ikea that goes through a washing machine will come out of said washing machine looking really, really bad.
I can’t agree. I have the Ektorp fully-machine washable sofa and I’ve washed the whole shebang a couple of times, and each of the cushion covers individually many times. Always comes out looking great.
I have a cheapass woven rug in front of the sink that I wash every third week or so – still looks great after a year (not bad for $2).
I have some cushions that velcro onto our (IKEA) wooden chairs - I must have washed them 20 times each – still look great.
I have some 100% cotton sheets for the guest bedroom – only used a couple of times but no problems there.
I have been told that Ikea candles sometimes catch fire—Is this just an urban myth, or has it happened and been corrected or is it a numbers game, eg: so many people buy the tealights from IKEA that statistically they show up in fires more…
before my blood pressure fucked me over my favorite bedtime comfy swill was a 24 oz mug, 20 oz expresso and 2 oz milk froth [sometimes with cinnamon sprinkled sometimes with cocoa powder sprinkled] I grew up drinking coffee, caffeine didn’t affect my ability to sleep [just my damned blood pressure. I really miss coffee, decaf tastes like someone made coffee using a used jock strap as the filter.]
