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> Current new things there are made from paper!!! Another point of view: the IKEA cardboard honeycomb material is AWESOME! It's made from recycled material, i

by exDM69 6y ago

> Current new things there are made from paper!!! Another point of view: the IKEA cardboard honeycomb material is AWESOME! It's made from recycled material, it doesn't weigh anything, it's very strong when compared to weight and price, the surface is pretty resilient and it doesn't produce a lot of waste when it is inevitably discarded. In today's single use culture (which needs to go away) it would be a terrible waste of resources to use nice hardwood to build cheap coffee tables that get swapped out when the fashion changes. You can still get hardwood furniture that will last several lifetimes. It will make you feel a little lighter in the pocket, but you buy once and cry once.

harlanji 6y ago
This nails my annoyance with going from low-middle income with generations old stuff to $200k/yr rich and with a sense for getting stuff that will last (relative value), to homeless where people want to throw cheap garbage at me. Silver lining is I’m unbreakable and persistent, so my sales skills are improving in order to eat and hold to that (eg. Justifying $9 tacos as 45 mins of min wage work and vs. $9 of comparable Taco Bell both vegan), and most of the stuff has lasted insanely long relative to wear, to like cents per use.
burntoutfire 6y ago
If you buy a desk top made out of this honeycomb crap, if you put any weight on the desk top (e.g. sometimes rest your elbows there), be prepared to throw it out after a couple years - the whole surface will over time heavily deform under weight and will no longer be flat.
- exDM69 6y ago
  You're either unlucky or exaggerating. I've had cardboard honeycomb furniture for years and years with no major degradation. If the surface coating gets damaged or the surface gets pierced or it becomes waterlogged from spills or environmental humidity, it will quickly go bad. But they're pretty resilient to normal household use. You get what you pay for. A LACK honeycomb table costs 7€. What can you expect at this price?
  - burntoutfire 6y ago
    > You're either unlucky or exaggerating. I think I was neither, as I repeated it three times and always got the same result (I was moving every couple of years, so I threw out the crooked desk top when moving and bought identical one in a new place). Eventually, I stopped getting those $40 honeycomb desk tops and got a wooden one, from IKEA as well (made not from solid wood, but from sort of glued together mosaic of small wood pieces, don't know what it's called) for around $100, which is still good as new after 8 years of usage.
    - kingbirdy 6y ago
      I think expecting a $40 piece of furniture to survive multiple moves is unrealistic on your part. You get what you pay for, and $40 for a desk that makes it through even 2 residences is $20/location for a desk which is ridiculously cheap.
      - burntoutfire 6y ago
        It wasn't a desk, just a desk top (i.e. a flat rectangular surface, 150cm x 70cm x 5cm IIRC). You screwed legs to it (sold separately), and thus had a simplest possible desk. Also, I agree that it was cheap, but it was a piece of furniture that has already shown signs of wear after a year and was ready for landfill after 3 years of usage. Under Polish law, I could probably successfully sue IKEA for selling me faulty product, because I could reasonably argue in court that no furniture, no matter how cheap, should be expected to last only 3 years. I mean, desks are not socks.
- Kuinox 6y ago
  The only way I damaged it was with a double screen clamp. I find the honeycomb amazing, bought my huge desk 35€ while I was a student, and the only thing that damaged it was the double screen arm clamp that damaged the surface of the desk.
  - xenonite 6y ago
    Same experience here, funny coincidence.
m463 6y ago
I have another perspective: kids. With ikea a kid can get his own setup, brand new and age appropriate. Princess or racecar bed when they're young. bed with a desk underneath when they're getting to homework age, full sized bed when they reach 90th percentile. All with matching extras, and not too much money. By the way, have you noticed the price and quality of furniture store furniture (when they're not "going out of business"?) A lot of it is either 10x ikea price or only 4x but still made with fiberboard underneath.
- jdmg94 6y ago
  If only IKEA furniture didn't had a history of killing children because they don't meet furniture stability standard. Here's a couple stories from this year and before then. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/us/ikea-dresser-lawsuit-settlement.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/us/ikea-dresser-lawsuit-s... https://www.newsweek.com/why-are-these-ikea-dressers-killing-children-718654 https://www.newsweek.com/why-are-these-ikea-dressers-killing... and many many more
  - triceratops 6y ago
    A lot of specialist children's toy and furniture companies have recalled deadly products. This isn't an Ikea-specific problem. Checking for recall notices before buying a product, and registering with the manufacturer to receive future notices is the wisest course of action.

by exDM69 6y ago

harlanji 6y ago

This nails my annoyance with going from low-middle income with generations old stuff to $200k/yr rich and with a sense for getting stuff that will last (relative value), to homeless where people want to throw cheap garbage at me. Silver lining is I’m unbreakable and persistent, so my sales skills are improving in order to eat and hold to that (eg. Justifying $9 tacos as 45 mins of min wage work and vs. $9 of comparable Taco Bell both vegan), and most of the stuff has lasted insanely long relative to wear, to like cents per use.

burntoutfire 6y ago

If you buy a desk top made out of this honeycomb crap, if you put any weight on the desk top (e.g. sometimes rest your elbows there), be prepared to throw it out after a couple years - the whole surface will over time heavily deform under weight and will no longer be flat.

exDM69 6y ago
You're either unlucky or exaggerating. I've had cardboard honeycomb furniture for years and years with no major degradation. If the surface coating gets damaged or the surface gets pierced or it becomes waterlogged from spills or environmental humidity, it will quickly go bad. But they're pretty resilient to normal household use. You get what you pay for. A LACK honeycomb table costs 7€. What can you expect at this price?
- burntoutfire 6y ago
  > You're either unlucky or exaggerating. I think I was neither, as I repeated it three times and always got the same result (I was moving every couple of years, so I threw out the crooked desk top when moving and bought identical one in a new place). Eventually, I stopped getting those $40 honeycomb desk tops and got a wooden one, from IKEA as well (made not from solid wood, but from sort of glued together mosaic of small wood pieces, don't know what it's called) for around $100, which is still good as new after 8 years of usage.
  - kingbirdy 6y ago
    I think expecting a $40 piece of furniture to survive multiple moves is unrealistic on your part. You get what you pay for, and $40 for a desk that makes it through even 2 residences is $20/location for a desk which is ridiculously cheap.
    - burntoutfire 6y ago
      It wasn't a desk, just a desk top (i.e. a flat rectangular surface, 150cm x 70cm x 5cm IIRC). You screwed legs to it (sold separately), and thus had a simplest possible desk. Also, I agree that it was cheap, but it was a piece of furniture that has already shown signs of wear after a year and was ready for landfill after 3 years of usage. Under Polish law, I could probably successfully sue IKEA for selling me faulty product, because I could reasonably argue in court that no furniture, no matter how cheap, should be expected to last only 3 years. I mean, desks are not socks.
Kuinox 6y ago
The only way I damaged it was with a double screen clamp. I find the honeycomb amazing, bought my huge desk 35€ while I was a student, and the only thing that damaged it was the double screen arm clamp that damaged the surface of the desk.
- xenonite 6y ago
  Same experience here, funny coincidence.

m463 6y ago

I have another perspective: kids. With ikea a kid can get his own setup, brand new and age appropriate. Princess or racecar bed when they're young. bed with a desk underneath when they're getting to homework age, full sized bed when they reach 90th percentile. All with matching extras, and not too much money. By the way, have you noticed the price and quality of furniture store furniture (when they're not "going out of business"?) A lot of it is either 10x ikea price or only 4x but still made with fiberboard underneath.

jdmg94 6y ago
If only IKEA furniture didn't had a history of killing children because they don't meet furniture stability standard. Here's a couple stories from this year and before then. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/us/ikea-dresser-lawsuit-settlement.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/us/ikea-dresser-lawsuit-s... https://www.newsweek.com/why-are-these-ikea-dressers-killing-children-718654 https://www.newsweek.com/why-are-these-ikea-dressers-killing... and many many more
- triceratops 6y ago
  A lot of specialist children's toy and furniture companies have recalled deadly products. This isn't an Ikea-specific problem. Checking for recall notices before buying a product, and registering with the manufacturer to receive future notices is the wisest course of action.