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They have solid wood options, but you have to hunt for them. Also, they tend to up the price and it's "fancier" looking. Your comment makes me wish I had the s

They have solid wood options, but you have to hunt for them. Also, they tend to up the price and it's "fancier" looking. Your comment makes me wish I had the space to get back into woodworking, but I just bought Ikea today because it fits into a small car and apartment easily.

2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
They have been producing more and more solid wood options since 2015 or so. Since the end of 2016 there are quite a few nice looking solid wood options. I should know. I've been there a lot recently. Some are flimsy, but easily fixed with a few cheap parts from the hardware store. You can also get most things in a natural finish so you can paint it yourself.
fpgaminer 10y ago
> Your comment makes me wish I had the space to get back into woodworking, but I just bought Ikea today because it fits into a small car and apartment easily. Yeah, I wish the hobby was more accessible. It's relaxing in a strange way. The work is hard and laborious, but I find a sense of peace, almost like mindfulness, when I'm standing over a piece of wood licking the sand paper back and forth, or concentrating on my brush strokes trying to make every movement better than the last. And then you have this physical object in your home. For all its faults and imperfections, it's still a monument of accomplishment. It reminds you every day. That's so different from software which doesn't have that same sense of object permanence. I know hackerspaces exist, and sometimes they have tools related to woodworking. But I've never had one near enough to me to be worthwhile, and the thought of starting one in California where land is so expensive and interest so sparse ... So I had to wait until buying a home before I could have the opportunity to work with wood again.
- Freak_NL 10y ago
  Woodworking as a hobby really seems to touch upon something for those of us who work on a computer all day long. The physical aspect is rewarding; whatever you create is real instead of the ephemeral virtuality of software. Moving from an apartment to a house with room for a (small) workshop was liberating in that respect. Ikea furniture truly is well engineered though, and I agree with the environmental benefit of Ikea flat-pack furniture — although I am critical of the mindset it fosters where furniture is now a consumable rather than a long term investment. Whenever people dump broken and worn down Ikea furniture by the road side for collection by the municipal garbage service, I forage a bit for the clever Ikea hardware (like those handy demountable nuts and bolts used in the Billy) for use in my own projects.
- rfrey 10y ago
  It's quite accessible if you don't look at too many woodworking magazines. You can do everything to a very high standard with chisels, planes and a few saws. You're not in it for speed or economy, so why not? In many cases, for one-of-a-kind items, hand tools are even faster than power tools. And the mess left behind is shavings that sweep up nicely, rather than dust that gets everywhere. I had a very nice shop in a spare apartment bedroom when I was single, and built a few celtic harps, a guitar, several bookcases, and some cabinets, doing most of the work after neighbours were asleep. No complaints about noise or dust.
driverdan 10y ago
Most of their solid wood stuff is cheap, unfinished pine. In some cases it makes sense but in many it does not.

2muchcoffeeman 10y ago

They have been producing more and more solid wood options since 2015 or so. Since the end of 2016 there are quite a few nice looking solid wood options. I should know. I've been there a lot recently. Some are flimsy, but easily fixed with a few cheap parts from the hardware store. You can also get most things in a natural finish so you can paint it yourself.

fpgaminer 10y ago

> Your comment makes me wish I had the space to get back into woodworking, but I just bought Ikea today because it fits into a small car and apartment easily. Yeah, I wish the hobby was more accessible. It's relaxing in a strange way. The work is hard and laborious, but I find a sense of peace, almost like mindfulness, when I'm standing over a piece of wood licking the sand paper back and forth, or concentrating on my brush strokes trying to make every movement better than the last. And then you have this physical object in your home. For all its faults and imperfections, it's still a monument of accomplishment. It reminds you every day. That's so different from software which doesn't have that same sense of object permanence. I know hackerspaces exist, and sometimes they have tools related to woodworking. But I've never had one near enough to me to be worthwhile, and the thought of starting one in California where land is so expensive and interest so sparse ... So I had to wait until buying a home before I could have the opportunity to work with wood again.

Freak_NL 10y ago
Woodworking as a hobby really seems to touch upon something for those of us who work on a computer all day long. The physical aspect is rewarding; whatever you create is real instead of the ephemeral virtuality of software. Moving from an apartment to a house with room for a (small) workshop was liberating in that respect. Ikea furniture truly is well engineered though, and I agree with the environmental benefit of Ikea flat-pack furniture — although I am critical of the mindset it fosters where furniture is now a consumable rather than a long term investment. Whenever people dump broken and worn down Ikea furniture by the road side for collection by the municipal garbage service, I forage a bit for the clever Ikea hardware (like those handy demountable nuts and bolts used in the Billy) for use in my own projects.
rfrey 10y ago
It's quite accessible if you don't look at too many woodworking magazines. You can do everything to a very high standard with chisels, planes and a few saws. You're not in it for speed or economy, so why not? In many cases, for one-of-a-kind items, hand tools are even faster than power tools. And the mess left behind is shavings that sweep up nicely, rather than dust that gets everywhere. I had a very nice shop in a spare apartment bedroom when I was single, and built a few celtic harps, a guitar, several bookcases, and some cabinets, doing most of the work after neighbours were asleep. No complaints about noise or dust.

driverdan 10y ago

Most of their solid wood stuff is cheap, unfinished pine. In some cases it makes sense but in many it does not.