4 ms·

The ikea stuff also seems to be perfectly fine. Almost my entire apartment I ikea stuff and I’m yet to have anything fail. With some of the oldest bits being th

The ikea stuff also seems to be perfectly fine. Almost my entire apartment I ikea stuff and I’m yet to have anything fail. With some of the oldest bits being the Malm draws which are about 15 years old now and still perfectly fine. Sure, if you move them around a lot or leave them in the sun they will degrade, but just using them as normal they seem to last way longer than you’d think.

doubled112 3y ago
All my Ikea stuff has been perfectly fine as well. A photo fell off the wall and put a rather large hole in a Lack coffee table one time. We were pretty amazed that the photo frame won. It was a $25 table. I could buy many for the price of something nice. Having small kids around, and seeing how they play, learn to use a fork, etc, I feel like we made the right choice buying cheaper. Plus what kid doesn't want to play at the table mom and dad let them sticker bomb?
- zeroonetwothree 3y ago
  I still have the Lack end table I bought for $7 20 years ago.
  - doubled112 3y ago
    At some point between then and now they changed how they made them. They have more empty space inside now.
  - throwaway2037 3y ago
    I have seen people using these on YouTube as a server rack substitute. They are still frighteningly cheap after 20 years.
VHRanger 3y ago
The problem with Ikea is once you have to move them around. Or if you have kids/dogs jumping up and down the sofa, etc. The particleboard connections aren't very sturdy.
- ajsnigrutin 3y ago
  Well sure, but in many cases, you can go to a "proper" furniture store, buy a piece that is a couple of times more expensive than the one from ikea, and get the same particle board and same shitty connections... especially with stuff where the wood is hidden (eg. sofas). Also the assembly for ikea stuff is usually perfect.. everything aligns to the last millimeter... which again, I can't say for much more expensive furniture pieces.
  - VHRanger 3y ago
    Agreed, there's a big gap between Ikea and the next step up. And most people can't differentiate between quality (nor should we expect them to!). "Proper" furniture stores you find in malls and outlets are generally high margin crap. There's lots of soft scams out there. There's a reason many people go back towards antiques and similar.
    - throwaway2037 3y ago
      I feel like beds are in the same category. There is a sea of choice, but very hard to distinguish which is actually higher quality... or if the price difference has tangible benefits (better sleep, etc.).
  - giantrobot 3y ago
    IKEA stuff is also relatively easy to "harden" with some extra strategically placed metal brackets from Home Depot. For instance you can make a particle board bookshelf very sturdy by screwing some L-brackets on the back corners. Corner braces screwed under the shelves will likewise keep them from bowing under the weight of books. It's a few extra dollars and will make the pieces survive a move and just generally feel sturdier. It's not a replacement for "good" furniture but will make the cheap stuff much better.
    - throwaway14356 3y ago
      yeah, add lots of glue and metal L profiles or some nice decorative wood. Good glue alone makes a better attachment than the screws and nails but you do have to glue it before it gets wobbly
ascagnel_ 3y ago
IKEA is highly variable. I’m writing this while sitting on a leather loveseat that’s more than a decade old and holding up great. I also have a chest of drawers that, despite my best efforts during construction, immediately began to sag. Their expensive furniture is good mid-range stuff, the cheap stuff is cheap.
- OJFord 3y ago
  Yeah the cheap stuff is on par with up to 10x cheaper stuff on Amazon (you just have to deal with drop shipped branding and dodgy/no instructions), the more expensive stuff has better quality competitors IMO. Such as Dwell.co.uk, coincidentally, completely unrelated afaict to OP. They make veneer-grade non-flat-pack furniture (and upholstered stuff) at a mid-high Ikea price. Made similar I think, or any number (including local showrooms) of suppliers of either drop shipped or wholesale manufactured oak+paint-grade, it seems quite common/popular. I have a couple of items from cotswoldco.com for example that have absolutely matching (but differently named) pieces available from an unrelated local independent shop, that I might otherwise assume had a small manufacturing operation too.
  - pbowyer 3y ago
    Dwell.co.uk is sadly now part of DFS, so whether the quality and range continues...
  - OJFord 3y ago
    I realise it's unclear because of the position in the sentence & my lazy phrasing, and doesn't read well, but that was capital-M Made, made.com. As in 'Similar to Made I think, [...]'. (Can't edit it now.)

doubled112 3y ago

All my Ikea stuff has been perfectly fine as well. A photo fell off the wall and put a rather large hole in a Lack coffee table one time. We were pretty amazed that the photo frame won. It was a $25 table. I could buy many for the price of something nice. Having small kids around, and seeing how they play, learn to use a fork, etc, I feel like we made the right choice buying cheaper. Plus what kid doesn't want to play at the table mom and dad let them sticker bomb?

zeroonetwothree 3y ago
I still have the Lack end table I bought for $7 20 years ago.
- doubled112 3y ago
  At some point between then and now they changed how they made them. They have more empty space inside now.
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  I have seen people using these on YouTube as a server rack substitute. They are still frighteningly cheap after 20 years.

VHRanger 3y ago

The problem with Ikea is once you have to move them around. Or if you have kids/dogs jumping up and down the sofa, etc. The particleboard connections aren't very sturdy.

ajsnigrutin 3y ago
Well sure, but in many cases, you can go to a "proper" furniture store, buy a piece that is a couple of times more expensive than the one from ikea, and get the same particle board and same shitty connections... especially with stuff where the wood is hidden (eg. sofas). Also the assembly for ikea stuff is usually perfect.. everything aligns to the last millimeter... which again, I can't say for much more expensive furniture pieces.
- VHRanger 3y ago
  Agreed, there's a big gap between Ikea and the next step up. And most people can't differentiate between quality (nor should we expect them to!). "Proper" furniture stores you find in malls and outlets are generally high margin crap. There's lots of soft scams out there. There's a reason many people go back towards antiques and similar.
  - throwaway2037 3y ago
    I feel like beds are in the same category. There is a sea of choice, but very hard to distinguish which is actually higher quality... or if the price difference has tangible benefits (better sleep, etc.).
- giantrobot 3y ago
  IKEA stuff is also relatively easy to "harden" with some extra strategically placed metal brackets from Home Depot. For instance you can make a particle board bookshelf very sturdy by screwing some L-brackets on the back corners. Corner braces screwed under the shelves will likewise keep them from bowing under the weight of books. It's a few extra dollars and will make the pieces survive a move and just generally feel sturdier. It's not a replacement for "good" furniture but will make the cheap stuff much better.
  - throwaway14356 3y ago
    yeah, add lots of glue and metal L profiles or some nice decorative wood. Good glue alone makes a better attachment than the screws and nails but you do have to glue it before it gets wobbly

ascagnel_ 3y ago

IKEA is highly variable. I’m writing this while sitting on a leather loveseat that’s more than a decade old and holding up great. I also have a chest of drawers that, despite my best efforts during construction, immediately began to sag. Their expensive furniture is good mid-range stuff, the cheap stuff is cheap.

OJFord 3y ago
Yeah the cheap stuff is on par with up to 10x cheaper stuff on Amazon (you just have to deal with drop shipped branding and dodgy/no instructions), the more expensive stuff has better quality competitors IMO. Such as Dwell.co.uk, coincidentally, completely unrelated afaict to OP. They make veneer-grade non-flat-pack furniture (and upholstered stuff) at a mid-high Ikea price. Made similar I think, or any number (including local showrooms) of suppliers of either drop shipped or wholesale manufactured oak+paint-grade, it seems quite common/popular. I have a couple of items from cotswoldco.com for example that have absolutely matching (but differently named) pieces available from an unrelated local independent shop, that I might otherwise assume had a small manufacturing operation too.
- pbowyer 3y ago
  Dwell.co.uk is sadly now part of DFS, so whether the quality and range continues...
- OJFord 3y ago
  I realise it's unclear because of the position in the sentence & my lazy phrasing, and doesn't read well, but that was capital-M Made, made.com. As in 'Similar to Made I think, [...]'. (Can't edit it now.)