Interesting! I plan on buying a new book shelf soon, as in within the next couple of weeks (need one right away, but am lazy, so it’ll probably take me 10 days to get around to it), and I was considering IKEA, but feeling a little wishy washy. As stationary as a book shelf is, which is what IKEA is best for, I’m still just generally wary about the flimsiness of their products.
Ooh, maybe I’ll try them! Twas where I bought my couch, and I dig my couch.
MeanOldLady, use the glue anywhere that pressboard touches pressboard, and maybe even in the screw holes. You might want to look up how to use wood glue when building real furniture. (UPon second reading decades might be overstating the case a bit, but it’ll definitely really help with that “coming apart at the seams in a year” thing.
Also, can’t hurt to add some finishing nails that you purchase on your own as well, if you get stuff with just pegs, like some of their bookcases are. A dot of paint - or even matching nailpolish over the spot and no one will notice the nails.
I think of IKEA’s included hardware as just a starting point for assembly.
In my area (southeastern Massachusetts) there are a couple of good options for decent furniture cheap. One is the Mill Stores chain, which specializes in unfinished furniture, mostly pine and oak or oak veneer over decent plywood. I don’t think any of their stuff is particle board. The stores do offer, at an additional cost, finishing in an assortment of several wood stain/ urethane colors.
We are also lucky around here to have the Building #19 stores, which sell all manner of salvage goods, manufacturers’ overstocks, past season upholstery patterns, etc. It’s a place you have to visit often because with the furniture they generally only have one of each piece or just a few. Building #19 also has great deals on oriental rugs, mattress and foundation sets, clothing, books, housewares. . . just about everything.
I’ve noticed that K-Mart has a slightly-better-than-Sauder line that’s made with some real wood along with a somewhat better particle board with veneer. Don’t recall the brand name of it, though.
I found with Ikea, its best not to go with the cheapest bookshelves, which is the Billy line, which as I’ve learned are somewhat flimsy. We have the Markor bookshelf, which is sold wood, and thus better built. They have a more narrow model as well.
I just bought this bookshelf from JCPenney 20 minutes ago, but I’m still watching this thread because I need to buy more furniture, but I don’t need to spend tons of money. Love the Markor shelf; perhaps I’ll look into that IKEA line when I start buying bedroom furniture.
Edit: When I searched their website for Markor just now, all I saw was shelves and tables. Do you know what’s going from IKEA for bedrooms, specifically dressers and night stands? Thanks.
Ohh I love those ladder-style bookshelves. Hope it is perfect for you!
We have Expedit with the optional little desk. It’s the biggest Expedit, and we honestly almost couldn’t carry it into the house, the biggest (of three) boxes was so heavy. It will outlast us all. And by us, I mean the human race.
If you want to browse Craigslist, use Firefox and get the extension called Craigslist Image Prefetcher. It puts all the pictures in the category pages or search results so you don’t have to click on every individual ad to see them. There are probably a few other Craigslist extensions, but that’s the only one I’ve tried.
Also, when you do a search you can bookmark the results page. Every time you use that bookmark, it will perform the same search again. You can come up with a few appropriate search queries, bookmark them and then check them once or twice a day.
ETA: You also have to know someone with a truck or van.