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There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)
by PakG1 9y ago
There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)
- scotth 9y agoAgreed. I'm not sure where the misconception of their furniture being difficult to build comes from. In my experience their instructions are unambiguous and well-designed.
- on_and_off 9y agoI can't agree more, for the furniture I have bought, Ikea's instructions are pretty exemplary. Without any written words, the instructions are very clear on how to assemble the furniture. If you pay attention when reading them, it is not possible to make a mistake. On the other hand, I have also bought from other RDA furnitures and have encountered some obscure instructions.
- untog 9y agoYes, but they're sometimes also heavy, or would benefit from more than one person working on it at a time.
- morgante 9y agoIt's not particularly difficult but nor is it particularly fun. I certainly don't plan to assemble the furniture for my next apartment myself.
- stephenr 9y agoBut is that because you'll pay someone to assemble similar furniture, or because you'll buy better furniture that isn't just IKEA flat-packs?
- jefozabuss 9y agoI came to the same conclusion as morgante, next time I'd rather pay for assembly instead of doing it for myself for a whole weekend.
- adamlett 9y agoIt reads like you plan to get entirely new furniture when you move. What’s wrong with the furniture you already own?
- Ntrails 9y agoI put together a couple of wardrobes for a friend which was fine, but she still had to get a genuinely useful person in to drill them together and attach to wall etc as I lacked the tools.
- hvidgaard 9y agoIkea furniture and instructions are Lego of the furniture world. Anyone with half a brain and some patience can assemble it.
- eungyu 9y agoI also like that you don't need to be a literate person to assemble their furniture (wordless instructions).
- CaptainZapp 9y agoFrom 30 years ago. Seriously, at that time the instructions came in gibberish with extremely weird illustrations and you were usually wondering why you had surplus screws. The design of IKEA furniture at that time was, let's just say, a lot more rustic too.
- songshu 9y agoThey are. The times I've been caught were clearly my mistake. Those times and various close calls have been cases of almost symmetry. I've also done things like building two identical units in series or parallel and watched myself learn. I can imagine a great speed up with practice. An apartment's worth of furniture could take me a day, and I can well imagine paying someone $100 for an hour instead.
- jwdunne 9y agoReminds me of a funny story. I'd give up smoking and was on day 3. It took me several hours and I had a desk but almost looked inside out by the time I'd finished. Otherwise, it's quite relaxing. I find it enjoyable. The times I see people struggle is when they eschew the instructions.
- stephenr 9y agoI wouldn't go so far as to say enjoy. Unless you get one of the few pieces that are all steel (eg their kitchen wall shelves are quite good) or the even rarer solid timber pieces, its not really that great, it's just cheap (by western standards) However I also find it weird that there are people who can't put together IKEA furniture. Then again, in Thailand everything that needs assembly will get you a "would you like that assembled (for free)?", usually in-store. This goes for furniture, gardening equipment, you name it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- DanHulton 9y agoWhoof, can't stand it, myself. I don't know what it is about the activity, but it just bores/frustrates me silly. It's not hard! It's perfectly within the realm of accomplishment! I have already built my IKEA desk, bed, table, and bookshelves. I just really disliked every minute of it.
- seppin 9y ago> I just really disliked every minute of it. Reminds me of a marathon I ran. Did it give me a feeling of accomplishment afterwards? No, just really, really disliked the whole experience. Every min.
- zaf 9y agoSome don't have a helping hand and/or cannot follow the instructions (most of the time low quality) and/or don't have the patience and/or have a screw +/- left at the end and/or etc...
- majewsky 9y ago> most of the time low quality Huh? Do they have instruction leaflets where you live? I live in Germany, about 80% of my furniture is Ikea, and I've always found the instructions to be very precise. I was never confused about what to do. (I won't argue that some furniture needs an additional pair of hands to assemble just because of the weight, of course.)
- peteretep 9y agoMy parents, who do small-scale construction and decorating, get non-trivial numbers of enquiries about fixing people's poorly-assembled Ikea furniture.
- WillReplyfFood 9y agoThe problem - is simply dimensions.. I had a ikea desk, which is simply not deep enough - when i sit on it, my hands palm are on the border of the desk. You can not work this way.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoI seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.
- wowtip 9y agoThat is strange. Even as a Swede I would probably value a Billy more if it came pre assambled, so I was not made actively aware of low quality materials and holes drilled in not-quite-the-right places. Maybe a cultural thing. I always got the impression IKEA is more respected in other countries, while in Sweden it is seen as cheap furniture owned by everyone.
- hvidgaard 9y agoIt is cheap, and it do not hold up well - but that is why it is cheap.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoIt's not all rubbish, I've got a solid wood kitchen table from them which is already quite a few years old and looks like it will last a long time.
- hvidgaard 9y agoTheir solid wood and better-than-usual-finish furniture are not cheap though. So that goes out the window.
- rsynnott 9y agoI think it's certainly seen as cheap elsewhere, but usually of better quality than comparably cheap furniture.
- ghaff 9y agoI think that's true. But, in addition, in the US going to an Ikea is usually a bit of an expedition as there aren't that many stores. The stores themselves make things a bit of an event because they're different from the norm, have a fairly nice cafeteria, etc. Add it up and there's a certain aura to Ikea furniture that wouldn't exist if you picked up the exact same box at the local Walmart.
- WillReplyfFood 9y agoThe Do-it-yourself part is what protects Ikea from all complaints on this earth. Why would they punnish themselves.
- dajohnson89 9y agoIt's a meme that a couple who assembles Ikea furniture together is jeopardizing their relationship.
- nfriedly 9y agoHaha, yea, that is strictly a one-person job.
- smackfu 9y agoIt’s less fun when you need to do four identical chairs, or two dressers with six identical drawers.