I appreciate the design aesthetic and for self assembly furniture, the quality is great, but it’s not for me or my house. Too Scandinavian.
And it can be very hard to tell what’s real wood and what’s chipboard. We bought a bookcase from Ikea a few years ago. We were very careful to find a real wood bookcase that matched our decor. When we got it home and started putting it together, though, we found that it was just chipboard with a really good veneer. That shit never lasts- it crumbled a bit as we were putting it together.
That experience kind of soured me on Ikea.
I’m a big fan of IKEA. Unfortunately the closest one in in the Chicago area. The second closest one is in the Chicago area also. Why won’t IKEA come to Wisconsin? 
I just picked up some lingonberry jam from my local grocery store. It went really well with the Swedish Pancakes I made New Years Day. I’ve been making PBJ sandwiches with it since. Tasty, tasty stuff. I’ve never heard of coudberry jam though, I’ll have to look for some.
I don’t get it. You guys know, you don’t have to walk through the “maze”, right?
Love love love it. I have an Ikea 25 minutes from here. Going there is pure " me" time.
Ikea stuff being poor qiality is indeed a myth. They have so much, and designs change so often, that some will be better then other. However, Ikea kitchens and appliances, matresses and the classic couches consistently test higher then average on consumers tests.
And if you know your way around. with the little leaflets howye mentions, you can be in and out of Ikea with your item in 20 minutes.
Okay, before people start claiming that all IKEAs are laid out the same… apparently they’re not. The one in Round Rock/Georgetown is a maze, and while they had some shortcuts, you are not going to “pop in” to IKEA for less than 30 minutes. Which I hate.
I am one of those people who goes to a store to get something, and to get the fuck out.
I agree that they are great for cheap storage and even middle-range stuff. We have an IKEA entertainment center and bookshelves, all pine, that look great and are sturdy. I have some cheap shit here in my office and it’s terrible, but I have had it for many years.
I think once my kids are a little older it will be a good “activity.” They have awesome deals on stuff like hangers (got solid wood hangers for dirt cheap) and I like organizing drawers, etc.
I went there when I moved in with my girlfriend. We knew what we needed for the house, but didn’t bother researching specific items.
We came away with a big breadboard, a shoe horn, and some friction matting for the cutlery drawer so we don’t need to use those segmented tray things. Nevertheless, I enjoyed ambling round all of the rooms, deciding whether we needed a six-piece chopping board set or a mug tree made of titanium.
The meatballs were delicious, too.
Got an IKEA store about two miles from me and my man cave is completely furnished in IKEA-ness. I like it, and I like the stores themselves.
It actually isn’t hard at all, since when something is made of chipboard it says so right on the hang tag.
For example:
clearly labeled as being made of “particleboard and fiberboard.”
The staff can look it up the material content of anything they sell on the website as well. The alert consumer usually also notices that particleboard is much heavier than wood.
If it was the same size and weight, but cost $30, or $3000 for that matter, they’d still charge $100 to ship, because it’s expensive to ship things that are big and heavy.
When my wife was my fiancée and we were moving in together we furnished 90% of our apartment with stuff from Ikea. Unfortunately this meant that we had to go to Ikea for like 5 consecutive days, which nearly broke me. Then we got the stuff home and had to assemble it ourselves, which nearly broke us.
We opened an account at Ashley Furniture two days later and have never looked back. We did have to go there to find centerpieces for our wedding tables and I nearly got into a fight with one of the employees of the company who handles the carts for them after he grabbed me while I was trying to take my cart over to where my wife could pull the car up. That was the last time I will ever set foot in one.
I’m with the OP. My wife and I went to Ikea once to look for an entertainment center. We could tell the fibreboard from real wood, but they had nothing we wanted. Okay, that part was more us and not the store, but I didn’t like the maze aspect others have mentioned, and it was extremely crowded. I thought I was at a mall during a Christmas rush (we went before Halloween, so it wasn’t a Christmas rush).
We simply weren’t impressed, and ended up buying more locally (IIRC, it seemed overpriced on several pieces). Truth be told, we never found an entertainment center we wanted, but instead kept the one we had, and added a genuine wood bookcase to hold our movies and books.
But to those of you who like Ikea, go for it. Me, I’ll just stay away and let you have the run of the place.
Generally, I really like IKEA.
It can be intimidating the first time you go there. I felt similarly to the OP the first time I went to IKEA. But then I got to know the store layout after having gone there a few times.
The most important thing to know if you want to make a quick trip is that there ARE shortcuts between sections, so you DON’T have to walk through the whole store if you don’t want to. They are marked on the map which you should definitely pick up at the entrance and carry with you.
IKEA works great for our family.
We live about 10 minutes from one so, of course, when we moved into our house, it was our first stop. What we have purchased there has been pretty cheap but there is a reason for that. I like to change things around. The idea of having the same table for 25 years makes me shakey (chances are, I won’t like it anymore or what if we move and it doesn’t fit there?)
So, we bought stuff that we hoped would last 5-10 years. Fast forward 5 years and while some things have taken dents and there are some scratches, nothing is falling apart (exception: we hung a cabinet badly and had to replace the hanging mechanism and rehang it but that was our stupidity and not any fault of IKEA. Also, the cats have decided our couch is a scratching post. Thankfully, they are removable and replaceable covers!).
So, we have furnished our whole home, stylishly (well, I like it, anyway) for about a quarter of the cost of buying “real” furniture.
And, since it is so close, I know all the ins and outs and can actually zip in for something (which reminds me, we could use another laundry hamper and step stool). I can be in and out in 10 minutes or so.
We didn’t realize we needed a map or we’d have hunted one down. We didn’t realize that there was a sytem that we needed to learn or we’d have asked ahead of time. We just walked in and assumed we could find our futon and pay for it! And if they had “express” routes through the maze, they surely didn’t advertise them.
Note that I’m not unhappy with the price or quality. It’s just that I found the whole IKEA retail experience to be tedious and overly complicated. Of course, I’m an online shopper most of the time. I’d rather stick bamboo shoots under my nails than spend a day browsing.
Ah, that’s where we differ.
To me, the world needs more Scandinavian, especially after the kludgey pseudo-Victorian or the mock-English-Baronial stuff that people used way too much of in their houses in the Greater Toronto Area. Ikea is like a cool drink of clear water after that. Now, many of the buildings built in recent times have been more Modernist on the outside, but even then the interiors seldom have that clean and understated look.
FYI, the local furniture company is charging us $50 to delivery a sectional couch which I guarantee you is heavier and bigger. But I know what you’re saying.
IKEA is fun! I even like the food in the cafe, knowing full well that it would be pretty cold and gross if I were eating it anywhere but anywhere but an IKEA.
But yeah, the first time I went to IKEA, I followed the arrows, but I also noticed the big overhead signs that said “Shortcut To…” which helped because I had to backtrack a little ways. At the particular IKEA near me (and I don’t see why they wouldn’t do that at all the other stores) you can definitely go from the main entrance straight to the warehouse and be in 'n out in 15 minutes if you so choose, given that you already know what you’re looking for. The maze is just for fun.
I went to Ikea knowing it was designed as a shopping “experience”. I’d personally prefer more “stuff” and less display. The maze got old fast. I’d much prefer a sectional layout so I could ignore what I’m not looking for and concentrate on what I want.
I think the layout is geared more toward impulse purchases.
Say what? 
I’m glad to find this out before I ever set foot in one. Which isn’t too likely, the closest ones are in Atlanta or Houston, almost 400 miles away. Thanks PunditLisa.