Ikea
 

In installing a set of shelves my daughter purchased from Ikea, I cannot recall a set of instructions more ambiguous. Never thought I would see instructions harder to decipher than most Chinese sets I have encountered, but the Swedes have done it....:(

Aint nobody buying stuff at Ikea!

HATE that place. I've never been in a more strange, rat maze of a store. Just a bunch of lemmings shuffling through a maze surrounded by cheap junk. Went there once, not going back.

I have lived on Ikea stuff for decades. Yes it is press board, but for the price, it has held up better than a lot of crap I have bought from the bigger shops. And sure, I have stripped out some of the screw holes before, but that was my fault.

I bought this bar and had it installed last week. Very happy.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1529421594.jpg

Ikea is worth the price. Just remember that and all's fair.


The store? Hell no.


One thing I've found at Ikea that is a great bargain is the UTRUSTA automatic push-drawer opener, which is just a repackaged Blum servo opener at a pretty good discount. If you have under-counter trash, this is the coolest thing in the kitchen.

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30238703/

that looks GREAT!

^^^
I agree.
.
Ikea. The place you go shopping with a backpack full of survival supplies.
Want a ABC Gizmo? It's on the top floor and you have to trek the entire store, following the arrows, to get to it. They designed it that way so that you are enticed to buy their other "stuff" along the way.
Ugh!
I have to confess, I did buy some good curtains for my sun room...and went back for a couple more, even.

Ikea is decent stuff for kids. Either the little ones at home (who will outgrow the stuff and likely draw on it anyway with Sharpies and other markers, so not worth buying $$$ stuff for them), or college/grad school kids, where you only need it for a couple years anyway while they're away from home. Also for parties, where you might need 20 inexpensive glass bowls for table centerpieces or whatnot. Plus, where else can you get two hotdogs, a soda, and a frozen yogurt cone for $3?

i once read an article in Saveur magazine. they would do an occasional story on some random Pro-chef, and their home kitchen. they ranged from elaborate fancy places, to tiny spaces that exercise in extreme efficiency.

this one lady focused on economy. she used IKEA cabinets. she bought subzero fridges and fantastic appliances. but nestled everything in the bargain countertops and cabinets. her logic was to put the $$ into the things she actually touches and needs to work awesome. she figured storage the the flat countertops just needed to be that..storage and flat. it made perfect sense at the time. i will definately keep that in mind when i redo my kitchen. i will focus my spending power on the actual appliances.

We bought some really nice oriental rugs at Ikea in Germany back in 2002. Much better than the current stock.


We even have one of the death trap chest of drawers for our 17 y/o son. Just told him not to climb it and so far no injuries. Picked that up for free on side of the road after Ikea posted the hazard warnings. Young family with young kids did not want the thing nor the "burden" of anchoring it to the wall. Thing looks pretty good.

I did a full remodel of our kitchen using IKEA kitchen cabinets. They are every bit as good as the box store stuff from HD/Lowes which also use particle board for the boxes. Once they are screwed and glued they are plenty strong for their purpose. They have an online design tool to do that layout and select upper/lower cabinets. They are dead simple to assemble and place. I didn't use the plastic legs for the base cabinets and instead used 2x6 pressure treated wood to build the base pad they sat on. You can literally pay for the cabinets, drive home that day with the materials, and start assembling. They come with metal drawer slides and soft close hinges as standard. Lots of options and if you mess something up it's easy to get a replacement. We are very happy with our decision to use IKEA. IMO the kitchen stuff is several quality levels higher than the run of mill stuff they sell.

I also dislike the store layout but if you pay attention they have shortcuts in various places. Also nothing is preventing you from entering from the checkout side as a short cut.

If you're happy with your Ikea cabinets, then more power to you. During our recent kitchen remodel, we were fairly anti-Ikea, as the stuff we were replacing was already from Ikea. I never like the "feel" of the upper cabinet doors, and the particle board base cabinet drawers were falling apart. So I opted for plywood construction from a different manufacturer, instead. Especially as there are bound to be spills and mini-floods in a kitchen with small kids (or me). Kitchen and bathrooms: two places where I don't want particle board furniture. The cabinetry in our kitchen may have looked OK, but I hated it for the 8 years we lived with it.

You can get really, really cheap crap at Ikea, but they also have some stuff that's a little more expensive and better made, shelves that are a plank of actual wood, not pressboard, etc....

The store sucks, but sometimes, they have the off the wall stuff that you just can't find anywhere else.

So I'm walking through Ikea, heading for the curtains, and I see a nice wisk for cheap...I buy it.
I found two of them at home in the drawer.

Good looking babes roaming through Ikea.

In the Ikea in Houston, you can go in the front door or the out door, and there's a hall (with the food) connecting the two. Also, there are multiple shortcuts in the walls, several doors or doorways that go through a wall that keeps you from having to walk through the whole place. It can be a pain if the missus wants to go see all of the options or what you need is at the farthest point upstairs from the front door but there's usually a pretty direct route if you know where you're going.

Can’t hold a candle to super target.

I could not disagree more. I moved from a modern kitchen with all drawers under the counters with modern soft close, heavy duty drawer slides with smooth action to a 25 year old kitchen with doors under the counters and 20th century drawer slides on the drawers. What a pain. I would put good cabinetry right up there with a good 'fridge. I would rather have my LG refrigerator and decent cabinetry that a Sub Zero and cheap cabinets.

I built custom cabinets around IKEA specs and bought their drawers, etc. You can't beat the price and the quality is pretty good. Nothing has failed in 2 years and believe me my wife has every one over loaded.

As a landlord, walking through the store and seeing the 10'x10' apartments are an interesting test case for design.
It is so cool how they fit so much together.
My kitchen is small but with the layout I can actual cook simple meals faster than in a large one.
Always looking for new ideas.

For cheap small area rugs I liked these https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40322032/

Huh? IKEA has all the modern frills. All of them. Not understanding this. The material is the $saver.

I’ve been to one ikea to get a few items when we dropped our son off at college his freshman year.

Never again.

IMO IKEA has improved tremendously over the years. Not least the quality of their products. Nowadays it is actually not that rare to find that there are no pieces missing in the package. :D

LOL
And the bit is now for right AND left turning! Thats new 2018!

To be honest, to much unhealthy stuff in the materials. We do not use it for children at all.

I always use blue loctite on any metal on metal threading for flat pack furniture.

I love Ikea stuff. I remember the days of spending big $$$ on furniture at Thomasville, Ethan Allen, etc. Instead of $5K for a sofa, you can buy a nice one that does the job for $1K at Ikea. Use it for a few years, then sell on Craigslist for 50% of your purchase price, then buy another one to refresh your living room's look. No more being stuck with the sofa for 20 years just because you paid big $$$ for it. I have a buddy who was complaining that his wife spent $250K on furniture for their home.... every 2 years. GAWD, I'm so glad that my wife and I aren't slaves to expensive furniture. I'd rather use those fun tickets for an adventure.

Really stupid to buy any new furniture, especially 2wice or more. I have only new appliances and mattresses. Everything else is either a genuine antique or some clever Goodwill purchase. Antiques are not a good investment any longer unless you're competing with the Smithsonian. The millennials are not interested but they will buy mid century modern (hot right now) so antiques are way down in value. Anything rather large and you can get it almost free. This includes very nice dining room sets. Most just don't have the room.

So you can pick up really well built estate furniture for a dime on the dollar. In the case of aforementioned Ethan Allen, much less.

Every IKEA store has near the checkout area a large set of parts bins that has every fitting, screw, dowel, etc, etc, in case you need extra parts. I have purchased and assembled several IKEA pieces for the kids room that have held up very well. My son installed IKEA kitchen cabinets that look great and have held up as well. But, I did buy a few lamps that had rheostats for dimming that have failed! I stay away from anything electronic sold at IKEA.

Its a fun store to go through and best of all the food sold in the in-store restaurant is quite good.

^^^
Local Ikea sells great frozen Swedish meat balls near the checkout area.