Comments on: IKEA is a Shopping Experience, But What About The Furniture?

By: John

John — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:39:48 +0000

About 10 years ago, I was looking for a sofa and love seat. I went to Ikea and soon found myself spending almost three thousand on two pieces. I came to my senses and walked out. A week later, I ordered a traditional style set from Macy’s Furniture. I paid about 40% less due to a sale and 10 years later the set looks brand new and has not gone out of style – I doubt anything from Ikea would have held up as well.

The lesson here is to very careful when buying any upholstered furniture from Ikea. Its almost like a passive bait and switch situation. The lower end stuff is so poorly made that you will naturally begin to look at the higher end. The prices go up very quickly and soon are the equivalent of “real” furniture without the quality and with all the hassle of shopping at Ikea.

Always keep in mind a reality check. For the same prices as Ikea’s “high-end” lines, you could buy furniture at a real furniture store for the same money. You’ll wind up with non-disposable furniture, better service, and cheaper delivery – especially if you follow the sales.

By: » This Week in the Archives: Fireworks Edition on Consumerism Commentary: A Personal Finance Blog

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:35:30 +0000

[...] July 2: IKEA is a Shopping Experience, But What About the Furniture? [...]

By: Coro

Coro — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 08:09:27 +0000

I need help. If the cost of the house is: $100,000, how much do I have to have to buy furniture?

Thanks,

Coro

By: ac

ac — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:16:28 +0000

i bought the ektorp leather couch for 700$ in October 2006 from the new haven store. stopped off on the way home from a wedding (i live in manhattan). Its now MArch 2007 and the couch is broken. Call customer service, the first thing they tell me is bring the couch in to be inspected? haha. um i have no moving truck. i paid YOU to delivery it to me. and now its broken. so, in order to get help, i have to take pictures of the couch (what do you want to bet they will tell me they can’t tell anything from the pictures I take), rent a car (to the tune of about 150$) drive to new haven (90 minutes or so) and talk to customer service about it. chances are they’ll do nothing. Don’t buy anything over $100 there. you’ll regret it.

By: Kal

Kal — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 01:37:06 +0000

I am an Ikea virgin…i want a sectional couch but im still iffy…i was wondering how LONG the stuff lasts? anyone had anything for a lonnnng time, with kids and pets especially?

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 02:25:39 +0000

A lot of Ikea’s furniture is particle board, but they always have some real wood stuff. For example, they almost always have one brand of real wood bookshelves for the same price as their particleboard versions. They change frequently, so if you like the model they have out buy all the ones you need at one time (we have three sets because of this problem), but they hold up wonderfully.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 18:39:54 +0000

I have to say, we own our home and it was hardly a “first apartment” type situation, nor are we “newly married” at this point, but most of our furniture is from IKEA and it’s not only held up fine, it looks great. I think the key is that we weren’t afraid to spend money on the more expensive stuff they sell – it really is comparable to much higher-end furniture, you just have to put it together yourself. That said, our couch and arm chair are from a “real” furniture store, and although we bought our beds at IKEA, we bought the mattresses somewhere else!

By: Free Money Finance

Free Money Finance — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:21:11 +0000

Star Money Articles for the Week of July 3…

Here are interesting posts and news this week from the MoneyBlogNetwork members and beyond: Consumerism Commentary discusses shopping at IKEA. AllFinancialMatters says that lots of money will make you smart. MightyBargainHunter suggests camping for a f…

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 04:47:07 +0000

Home Depot rents trucks for around $30 per hour for those of us with cars (like me!). Buy the stuff, leave one person at IKEA, send another to Home Depot and voila, cheaper delivery. Or better yet, I have found people who will haul from Craigslist.org for around the same price. And they carry the darn things.

By: Calvin Mackie

Calvin Mackie — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 20:32:33 +0000

Ikea’s dishes and cookware are great and quite durable.

As for the furiture, either get it for yourself as something temporary or don’t get it at all.

Ikea furniture is great for when you have hyperactive/young kids who love to throw their toys around. It’s definitely better for little Junior to toss around his Tonka truck set into the side of a $99 particle board dresser than for him to do it to a $2,000 sold wood handcarved one.

By: Flexo

Flexo — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 12:57:02 +0000

As I mentioned, IKEA is good for starter furniture. I wouldn’t expect it to last forever, or nearly as long as better constructed furniture would last.

Nevertheless, my most-used piece of IKEA furniture is a couch/sofa, and it’s managed to last more than three years so far. It wasn’t the cheapest couch available at IKEA at the time, but it was far from the most expensive. The cushions and the frame are both holding up fine.

I probably wouldn’t go so far as to buy an IKEA mattress, but even if I did, I’d probably be sleeping on something better than what the majority of people throughout the world sleep on.

There will come a time when I want to furnish a house and I will look for furniture that will last for a generation or two. Until that point, I find no shame in settling for lower quality. I don’t have many visitors anyway. :-)

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:24:29 +0000

The good thing is that if you keep them looking nice, the resale value is actually pretty good as Ikea is almost a brand name for plastic-impregnated wood dust :)

By: wmc

wmc — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 20:09:41 +0000

Their stuffs look nice but they don’t usually last too long. Good design using cheap material and mass produce equal low price. I do like some of their products.

By: savvy saver

savvy saver — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 15:18:13 +0000

I have a couple things from Ikea that I bought about five years ago. Most of them haven’t held up with time, both in terms of durability and style.

I think I just outgrew Ikea. It makes me kind of sad, because it is a fun place to shop, but I prefer to buy things that are a bit more classic and durable.

By: Kira

Kira — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 14:27:00 +0000

I have found that IKEA likes to have various price points of furniture, but in general don’t buy the cheapest one. They have a $200 couch that I wouldn’t recommend (it crushes after time) but the $300 couches are just fine. I love the scratch and dent area. If I owned a pickup truck or a van or some large car like that, my whole house would be furnished with that stuff. =)

The household goods section is really great for a first time apartment furnishing. They have a lot of cheap, sturdy kitchenware and dishes.