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I moved multiple times with my IKEA furniture, including disassembling some. They’ve lasted fine these past five years+. Not sure why people think IKEA furnitur

I moved multiple times with my IKEA furniture, including disassembling some. They’ve lasted fine these past five years+. Not sure why people think IKEA furniture is “disposable” and do not last.

giancarlostoro 2y ago
Depends on what you get, and how you build it to boot. Some people will just use a drill or force the screws in too much. I did botch my current desk, but I just kept it, it's still sturdy. I too have kept plenty of Ikea products. When I bought my house they left some Ikea stuff, so it's at least 5 years or older and still sturdy.
bhouston 2y ago
There are few different levels of Ikea furniture quality. If you buy the lowest quality, it is composed of "particle board" (AKA pressed sawdust) and "corrugated cardboard" (https://youtu.be/24F5JlKkxR4?t=76 https://youtu.be/24F5JlKkxR4?t=76). This furniture is incredibly easy to break and it will often not support being screwed together twice. If you buy the higher quality furniture, which is often soft wood like pine (which is still incredibly low quality compared to traditional hard wood-based furniture), it will stand up a little better. It still scratches easily, because it is soft wood, but at least you can reassemble it after it has been disassembled. Does Ikea sell any traditional hardwood furniture that is made out of things like maple, oak? I think not. Did they ever? I think they might have early one, but I could be wrong. To be honest, it is likely a net environmental win that Ikea uses these cheap and low quality woods and sawdust and cardboard. Pine grows so much faster than hardwood, and reusing sawdust and cardboard is really low impact on the environment. I guess you have to balance that against the shorter lifespan of its furniture.
- mingusrude 2y ago
  IKEA uses acacia for some of their outdoor furniture. From the comfort of my Poäng-chair from the late 80ies I disagree strongly with the sentiment that IKEA furniture scratches easily.
  - bhouston 2y ago
    Poang appears to use oak and beechwood-based plywood - at least from a quick Google search. Both Oak and Beechwood are considered a hardwood. So yeah, it should be more durable than their pine-based furniture.
- geor9e 2y ago
  I like to use their uncut kitchen countertops and drill holes for legs to make tables https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/butcher-block-countertops-46457/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/butcher-block-countertops-464... But yeah, I think thats the closest you'll get to hardwood anything at ikea
attendant3446 2y ago
It varies. IKEA sells amazing things and utter rubbish at the same time. I don't know if they use different processes to create new items, because sometimes the item is just fantastic and cheap, and sometimes it's just crap, like nobody even tried to test it before they put it into mass production.
arendtio 2y ago
Many compare it to furniture made out of solid wood (how everything was before IKEA). Those things are of much higher quality (they could easily be used over decades, sometimes over centuries); compared to them, IKEA stuff is cheap (in price and quality). However, if you just look at IKEA stuff and compare how it evolves over multiple rounds of assembly and disassembly, there are products that are very hard to disassemble without breaking them and products that are fairly okay to disassemble and reassemble. As others have commented, it varies.

giancarlostoro 2y ago

Depends on what you get, and how you build it to boot. Some people will just use a drill or force the screws in too much. I did botch my current desk, but I just kept it, it's still sturdy. I too have kept plenty of Ikea products. When I bought my house they left some Ikea stuff, so it's at least 5 years or older and still sturdy.

bhouston 2y ago

There are few different levels of Ikea furniture quality. If you buy the lowest quality, it is composed of "particle board" (AKA pressed sawdust) and "corrugated cardboard" (https://youtu.be/24F5JlKkxR4?t=76 https://youtu.be/24F5JlKkxR4?t=76). This furniture is incredibly easy to break and it will often not support being screwed together twice. If you buy the higher quality furniture, which is often soft wood like pine (which is still incredibly low quality compared to traditional hard wood-based furniture), it will stand up a little better. It still scratches easily, because it is soft wood, but at least you can reassemble it after it has been disassembled. Does Ikea sell any traditional hardwood furniture that is made out of things like maple, oak? I think not. Did they ever? I think they might have early one, but I could be wrong. To be honest, it is likely a net environmental win that Ikea uses these cheap and low quality woods and sawdust and cardboard. Pine grows so much faster than hardwood, and reusing sawdust and cardboard is really low impact on the environment. I guess you have to balance that against the shorter lifespan of its furniture.

mingusrude 2y ago
IKEA uses acacia for some of their outdoor furniture. From the comfort of my Poäng-chair from the late 80ies I disagree strongly with the sentiment that IKEA furniture scratches easily.
- bhouston 2y ago
  Poang appears to use oak and beechwood-based plywood - at least from a quick Google search. Both Oak and Beechwood are considered a hardwood. So yeah, it should be more durable than their pine-based furniture.
geor9e 2y ago
I like to use their uncut kitchen countertops and drill holes for legs to make tables https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/butcher-block-countertops-46457/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/butcher-block-countertops-464... But yeah, I think thats the closest you'll get to hardwood anything at ikea

attendant3446 2y ago

It varies. IKEA sells amazing things and utter rubbish at the same time. I don't know if they use different processes to create new items, because sometimes the item is just fantastic and cheap, and sometimes it's just crap, like nobody even tried to test it before they put it into mass production.

arendtio 2y ago

Many compare it to furniture made out of solid wood (how everything was before IKEA). Those things are of much higher quality (they could easily be used over decades, sometimes over centuries); compared to them, IKEA stuff is cheap (in price and quality). However, if you just look at IKEA stuff and compare how it evolves over multiple rounds of assembly and disassembly, there are products that are very hard to disassemble without breaking them and products that are fairly okay to disassemble and reassemble. As others have commented, it varies.