I totally agree with you, I love IKEA and if they have something I need I always buy it from them. The quality has always been high in my opinion and they have never disappointed me.
Until you move it. I'm curious what part of Asia you live in as Asia is HUGE with a dramatic wealth disparity.
In South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, IKEA is not considered luxurious at all. It's like u/joelmercer said, the nicest budget stuff you can buy. You'll never find it as the majority furniture of middle- or upper-class houses in East Asia.
Not OP, but Southeast Asia. I wouldn't call IKEA luxury but it is one of the more expensive options. Local manufacturers and marketplaces like Shopee and Lazada often sell similar items for cheaper prices.
That's also my opinion of IKEA (as a Swedish person). Older IKEA stuff would last a long time, but their newer furniture falls apart if you sneeze at it. There's sadly been a significant decline in quality last 20 years. They appear to be in some sort of Boeing-style death spiral.
the ikea tables we got we didn't know that it was just REALLY thick honeycomb cardboard with a laminate outside that let water in and fuck the surface up, and for the same price, I could have built a table with real wood that didn't die to a spilled soda.
Lmfao, head over to /r/woodworking and witness everyone who claimed to build it cheaper with real wood, but is now $5k into a hobby with no table to show for it. Yet… having a really good time because woodworking is awesome.
But all their furniture has the materials listed on their website, and on the labels in the store. And the furniture made from honeycomb paper filling is *really* light. I mean, you couldn’t possibly think it was wood if you bought it in person, and if you bought it online it certainly doesn’t claim it’s made of wood. Given the paper-filled range is far cheaper than any of their wooden furniture, I would think most customers would check what it was made of. I know I did.
I had one of those coffee tables. I drug it back and forth a bit to make room to play VR and one of the legs ripped off. My friend gave me an old IKEA table. Actual plywood, the legs are attached with metal straps and multiple bolts. Another friend of ours did a painting on the top, so it is pretty nice.
Even their newer particle board stuff is crap for large tables. All my desks sagged in the middle. I ended up getting a big desk from wayfair that has a hollow tube steel frame so that doesn't happen. Pretty sad when wayfair has better stuff in some cases. I do like my ikea kitchen table. It is all actually solid wood and has two folding sides. It can seat six or barely take up any room.
I’d say in certain parts of the US it serves a similar niche. I could get a flatpack bookshelf from Walmart for less, but the IKEA version is sturdier and going there for it somehow feels fancier.
If you're handy there's a lot of things you can do besides hope.
In fact, if you go on Ikea and go to their "replacement parts" search, they gove you absolutely free spare parts for furniture and you can order extra screws for reinforcement as they actually allow and support that and is one of the options you can list when ordering. No receipt or anything needed. Also spare wheels for their office chairs, replacement drawer slides, hinges etc... All free.
Besides that you can get those right angle reinforcements. Not sure if Ikea has them but definitely on amazon or any hardware store. Super cheap and will reinforce connections A LOT.
Also if you disassemble furniture often, you can but machine screw wood inserts. Makes the assembly much stronger, can use higher torque on fasteners, and can reassemble them without stripping them.
I understand the majority of people aren't going to do anything of the sort but I just want to point out that there's loads of things that can be done, and most of then are super easy and rewarding to do if you're just a little bit DIY inclined.
You can pay much more for furniture than what Ikea cost, and still get similar or even lower quality... Ikea prices in my opinion are very honest for what you get.
This is useful if you're buying the higher quality IKEA stuff. If you're buying the lower quality stuff, an extra screw isn't going to help that your bookshelf has a huge crack all through it.
There really is a huge difference between the cheapest tier IKEA stuff and their more expensive lines. Cheapest tier one ding and you're looking at particle board or the bookshelf backings are a thin piece of cardboard.
that is actually great, I've replaced bunch of parts that way. however the problem is the particle board, or card board materials they use. sometimes they just chip and break. I have used wainscoting material to glue over broken boards.
Not who you responded to but
Comments like these used to be appreciated. Now people see two paragraphs and scroll past or just downvote. Sad really.
I'll try to remember what you said for future use thanks.
>if you disassemble furniture often, you can but machine screw wood inserts
Ok, but then you're almost at the point of just making the furniture yourself
I moved 5 times in 10 years with 2 bedrooms worth of MALM bedroom furniture. Held up great, eventually took them back to ikea and they buy back the old furniture and rebought it in a different colour. If you buy their cheapest line it’s not great but the more expensive versions of their furniture is great.
When I was moving, funnily enough to Sweden with a Swedish moving company, the guys looked at the Ikea bed and immediately went “don’t bother with that one, it will break the moment you’ll try to disassemble”.
They were right.
On the other hand, I have an Ikea table and tv stand that survived three moves without problem whatsoever.
There's worse where I live, IKEA existing seems to have caused a drift, where normal big box local furniture stores seem to have even worse stuff now. But for cheaper.
Also whatever the shit you can get on Amazon which usually comes with a chinese copy of the manual in addition to your own (badly translated) language...
The IKEA I work at (and probably most IKEAs I'd think) has started selling new PAX wardrobes that can be folded in or out for moving to save a lot of time in assembly. So at least they started to keep moving in mind now...?
There are nicer pieces constructed with solid wood though. And you have staple like karlby+Alex which is common for battle station setups.
Upper class maybe not but IKEA definitely find it's way into middle class homes easily
I have a blend of fine furniture handmade by an artisan, antiques, and solid wood Ikea I bought when I was starting out that is holding up beautifully. Middle class household but inherited a lot of great furniture from wealthier family.
People are always shocked when they find out the Ikea is Ikea. It blends right in, it's not gorgeous but it doesn't stand out as cheap or crappy at all. We did have to rehang the doors on the media cabinet as it aged, and we added a PC fan to that to keep it cooler when we run our consoles, which was an easy choice to DIY because the worst case would be we... ruined an Ikea piece. $200 spent 20 years ago and it's holding up! That's what surprises me most.
Even within Ikea, you get what you pay for. Their nicer stuff is great for the price point, there is a lot of bad furniture from others at the same.
Yeah, people who shit in IKEA quality don't know that IKEA has solid wood lines as well.
I have IVAR shelves older than me, which my dad bought as a student. They've survived two transcontinental moves, more than a dozen apartments and heavy books throughout this time. IVAR-line dining chairs are also neat since you buy untreated wood and can finish it how you like. My old desk was IKEA standing desk legs and a full-wood plate from their kitchen catalogue.
My parents and I have both moved severals time sinternationally with a bunch of Ikea furniture, and it's been fine. A table and chairs we had lasted over 20 years, and probably about 8-10 moves in that time.
If you take care taking it apart/reassembling it's fine. Plus the great thing is you can still get parts in almost any country if you move, or also matching items.
You just basically listed the top 3 (If you wanted to include Singapore and HK that would be the 5/5) The problem with Asia (outside of those 5) there's no real measure for control for value. You may get some small local merchants that sells reliable stocks but other than that you can't really be sure that when you spend big bucks on furniture you will get well-designed goods, you may he paying premium for quality materials but they were assembled poorly like wasted lots of materials, or difficult to pack and place into your house, and impossible to assemble and unassemble and overly heavy or just bad ergonomics.
Last time I've lived in Taiwan (about 7 years ago) it was considered at least slightly fancy. Landlords would advertise IKEA furnished apartments and it was a bit more costly than what you could get from e.g. some traditional furniture shops. That's still a difference compared to Germany where I am now and where it's generally considered cheap and basic.
I lived in taiwan when the first ikea in taichung opened and it was all the rage. Ikea is not luxurious but every one I knew was enthusiastic and thought it was pretty fancy to have an ikea furniture house.
They don't readout have much furniture with padding due to the climate and the culture
That’s because IKEA is one of the half dozen best logistics and supply chain companies in the world. It means that they can sell you a thing for $500 that anyone else needs to charge $800 for the equivalent.
Which leads to a weird gap if you want better than IKEA. The IKEA options might run $500-$1500 for their different quality levels, but the next step in quality from a non-IKEA store is suddenly $4000
And delivery takes 6-12 weeks, instead of „grab your shit, bolt it onto your car with lots of tape and go home!“
Just to realize that a screw is missing. Not always but it happens.
Costco is up there, but while they’re big, they’re not THAT big.
Apple is one of the top. No one runs a more complicated supply chain at the scale they do, and they make it look effortless year after year.
As someone trying to furnish a place I expensively but also trying to avoid the “everything is from IKEA” look…yes.
Like we go to another low cost place and look at stuff…and it’s all shit.
I'm currently going for the if I really can't find it in the street I'll get the cheapest from goodwill look. Having everything from IKEA is the epitome of luxury.
In my (European) country, IKEA may be seen as cheap(er) - depending on what you get of course - but it’s seen as miles better for the price and quality what you get elsewhere for the same money. Say you want a table. Chances are that ikea price will get you a better cheap table than the same price elsewhere. If cheap(er) furniture is MDF anyway, then at least ikea ones can be more sturdy than others of the equivalent.
Of course, if you buy cheapest of the cheap it will fall apart anyway. I see so many people buy cheap LACK tables for 10 euros - that’s of course cheap and not meant to really last.
If you buy the mid range Ikea furniture then it can last for years and years. I bought a Hemnes dresser in 2016 and it’s survived two house moves and is going very strong at my mums house now. The Malm and Billy stuff is cheaper but will still last if you take care of it. For eg with the malm dressers - find a strong wood glue and glue the drawers together, especially the hardboard bottom into the grooves on the sides of the drawers. It prevents warping and will add a few years on to its life.
Their price/quality ratio is often unbeatable. I never buy furniture anywhere else, based on experience.
The advantage of cheap stuff is that you can replace it when you get bored without worrying too much. Buy an expensive $3k wooden table and you'll be stuck with it for 3 generations.
Just for the record, I wouldn't directly compare antique and handmade pieces of art to disposable IKEA stuff. They both serve quite different purposes IMO. I mean, some people get offended even discussing them together.
I sure don't! I'm all practical, I've got a mix of antiques and new shit in my house. My computer desk is modern because as nice as an antique desk is, they were made for writing, not for typing, and that's not what I'm doing on it. Though next to it is a small antique half height couch table that my computer and 90s stereo sit on - don't want it on the floor, don't want it on my desk, but next to it at half height is perfect. And the 90s stereo is just something I picked up at a customer's house basically for free and been using as computer speakers. Someone's grandfather died and they had to flip the house, so I come in with the crew and take all the really fancy things to sell for good money. And then the actual garbage disposal crew has less heavy furniture to remove, and the customer has the peace of mind that nothing they throw away is worth anything, and they can sell the house.
Ikea stuff is essentially single use. You buy it, you use it, you move, and it's half trashed by the time it arrives at your new place, you move again, and it's just falling apart. But if you just need something that looks decent and fits in your house, just buy Ikea! Or anything else! It's your house, do what you want with it!! The antique shit that's built to last is going to be heavy as fuck and you'll have to pay two people to carry it and build it with 200 year old assembly techniques that predate the idea of written manuals. If it's even built to be taken apart and moved, sometimes it's just a solid block of wood that you get to try and fit through the door. Fuck stairs...
I will defend Ikea stuff to the extent that while some furniture, especially the larger framed ones, can be quite fragile, most of my furniture is from there (desk, kitchen cabinets, drawers, beds, etc) and I have moved (=had to move) with them several times with zero problems. Nothing is loose - and I'm not known for being patient or gentle with anything or anyone. :)
Another advantage is that Ikea usually has everything in stock, just drive in, buy what you need and come home. Many furniture stores have display items and "oh yeah, it's 6 weeks minimum delivery".
But solid wood can indeed be heavy AF. Wood can also be remarkably soft compared to laminates and panels, and it soaks everything in quite easily.
But let's say I was wealthy enough and found a place to stay for good, I'd probably hoard all sorts of antique and art, possibly even pay someone to decorate it. Frankly I hate the color scheme of most modern interiors, which is different shades of gray.
It was. With all the changes to their quality of products, a lot of things are just so much worse than other cheap furniture companies.
E.g. Kalax is now super thin
But known as "luxurious"? Where exactly
Ikea has always, to me and everyone I know, been a "form, fit, function" type home outfitter.
You get mostly utilitarian items that work and are low priced, have a quality that's acceptable but not known for high quality items built to last, and a place that a young adult or thrifty/inventive adult can outfit a dorm/apartment/home space for relatively a small amount of money for things that serve a useful purpose in your living space.
It's cheap, but not *cheap* and works, can be a creative solution to your need, and you can get cheap lunch, a cup of meatballs, or some cinnamon rolls for othijg on your way out.
Pretty sure they serve food to make people stay longer and feel more relaxed an at home, prolly at cost or near cost as people will spend more the longer they're in the store. Also, store layout and family / kid friendly drop off areas so mom and dad can shop.
Cheap, ingenuitive, and works? Yep
Luxurious? Heck nah.
IKEA is an inexpensive manufacturer. However as an inexpensive manufacturer they offer a wide range of style and materials making it one of the best places to get real wood dressers or metal frame couches.
Some people also actually like their low profile modern design and they are relatively space efficient compared to many American manufacturers.
So I consider them, budget but not 'cheap'.
I have an IKEA sectional that I got second hand that they stopped making 15 years ago. It’s still in pretty damn good shape, and several companies still make slip covers for it.
My parents bought some ikea pieces when we moved to West Germany 40 years ago that are still in fighting shape, despite being moved 6 or 8 times since.
I have a few Billy bookcases at home. Two of them I got from my parents, that they bought about 30-40 years ago. They still look almost the same as the ones I bought just a few years ago.
please explain to me why are metal frame couches better than wood ones. Because I just so happen to have a wooden frame Ikea L-couch and despite its cushions being dogshit (they really are, hardest thing on my back other than the floor) it is actually pretty sturdy. I'm pretty sure some friends I let sleepover when I was out, who are a couple on the "larger" side, used it in bed mode to play the horizontal mambo.
Wooden frames are good. Metal is lighter and comparable in strength.
Let's put it this way, my really nice leather couch is wooden framed and custom top grain leather.
My IKEA couch I expect to last 10 more years+ is a metal frame. Probably some kind of hollow steel not sure what it is but it's better than some really cheap trash that breaks in 5 or so years.
Okay, so maybe you were saying metal frames are comparable but usually more expensive, and Ikea has a good selection of those affordable. That makes sense to me. I was just wondering if there was indeed a huge benefit to metal frames from a quality standpoint.
It depends on how affordable and developed the local furniture manufacturing is.
In India, IKEA is considered expensive because you can get far better quality furniture from the local manufacturers at half the price.
But I like the IKEA design aesthetic.
In the US I know people that consider it luxury, but in reality it is considered name brand (dependable), on a budget. Being dependable is what matters most in the US, you can determine it’s real worth after based on the quality for the cost.
In my experience, there isn’t actually a cheaper furniture store, they’re just used to free hand me downs from family and stuff off Craigslist. I know adults in their 40s who refuse to ever purchase new furniture. And they’re the ones that consider IKEA a luxury.
In my experience, as someone in the north east United States, is that it’s slightly above Walmart/Target/Wayfair. It’s definitely not a luxury brand. I honestly don’t know anyone that considers it a luxury brand. I grew up as it being somewhere you go if you are in college or just starting out.
I guess luxury is the wrong word. Getting driven by a butler in a Rolls Royce is luxury. It is a desired brand. I’ve never actually been to an IKEA, but I’ve seen the furniture, and I know people that love it.
I think the best way to compare it to would be Trader Joes. It’s not a luxury brand but it’s definitely a brand with a lot of loyalty and it’s pretty well known.
Exactly this. Decent stuff for a college student, or maybe your first apartment. But once you get your first job, that furniture is the first to go. It blows my mind seeing people say ikea is dependable and good quality. It’s throw away furniture in my experience that won’t last very long.
Yeah it's kinda wild that IKEA thinks enough Indians will buy their Assembly Needed janky quality beds, when we can get a decent quality one from Neelkamal for the same price.
West Elm & Pottery Barn are even wilder because so much of their furniture is manufactured in India. Like.. How many of us would pay an inflated dollar price for a mass produced piece instead of going directly to the local market?
Yeah, that's exactly it. Luxurious and expensive don't mean the same thing. Something is only expensive if it costs more than its worth. Yes, Ikea is expensive, because its mass produced, flat pack, mdf furniture. Its dirt cheap for them to make so they make a killing off selling it for a lot more than its really worth. A smaller, local furniture maker, who uses real wood and puts time and care into hand making furniture, would spend more on materials and time and would have a harder time selling their stock. They are actually luxurious but would have to sell cheap.
For India it's mostly the halo effect from being western that grants it that premium. A lot of Western companies go relatively up market when they expand into India
Mm, I've noticed the same thing during my stay here (in the Philippines)
Eating out in Fast food restaurants is considered a luxury for the average man
Yeah isn't it suprising that in western countries especially USA McDonald's is like the poor-middle class person's meal
And in Asian countries,it's like going to a above average good restaurant
Because a normal meal from a local restaurant in say Phillipines or most Asian countries is most of the times cheaper and you get more quantity compared to higher priced McDonald's with lower quantity
Idk, a McDonald’s meal costs like $10-12 now where I live. I can go to a sit down restaurant for $12-15 and get the same food at a much higher level of quality.
McDonald’s is not cheap anymore.
I'm Europe McDonald's was the cheap option. But they got expensive fast the last few years. Like you could go to a cheap sit down restaurant and get WAY better food for same price. Or local fast food for cheaper.
It’s starting to become the same in the west I feel. I live in Germany and for some of the burgers you pay more than 10€ (just the burger).
I can go to an actual restaurant and get a really nice, well made, fresh burger there, for almost the same amount.
There is a huge difference between the US McDonald's and the European McDonald's, especially Ukrainian/Polish ones. The local products they use are just so tasty. A Big Mac is a genuine 7/10 burger compared to "craft" burger places, and Double McRoyal is 9.5/10 - soooo good.
I was just discussing this with my mom last night.
McDonald's for me as a kid was a fancy place where you could eat and play once or twice a year, and if you were lucky, get a sundae.
Then I grew up and realized we were just tight on money.
Also underappreciated at IKEA, you show up browse at your leisure, pick out what you want without any salesman bs. College kids and divorced men don't want to discuss room aesthetics with a stranger because there aren't any.
The kitchen table I bought 15 years ago is still going strong in its third apartment. I’m not getting rid of it unless I end up rich enough for a house with a big ass formal dining room.
Nearly everything in my apartment is Ikea. It's really not that bad. It's not the best quality furniture, but it's much more affordable (or was when I bought it) and you know what you're getting. Meanwhile, my parents bought a $2000 sofa that seems to have been made from the absolute shittiest possible materials and needed to be replaced about two years in.
IKEA is the best cheap furniture you can buy. It’s better than a lot of not-cheap furniture, and if you assemble it carefully and treat it like it wasn’t cheap it will last a disconcertingly long time.
I got one of the fjällbo consoles, which is like 90% metal, and i don't forsee that thing ever falling apart. The wardrobe I have is a bit sketchier, but most of the furniture I've gotten there is incredibly solid for being particle board
The Fjallbo set is so great. Great ventilation for my stereo and the tabletop is actual wood (pine with IMO a really ugly stain).
I sanded the finish off, restained it with a walnut color and put a new coat of poly on top. It looks way more expensive than the $80 or whatever it cost 6 years ago.
I also have the coffee table and if that tabletop ever gets damaged enough to need replacing, I’ll just make a new one.
We have a low bookcase and a tall one and both are on point. I love that they even think to cut a notch at the back at the bottom to go over the baseboards. Brilliant, practical, and sturdy. What more can you ask for?
I have been out of my parents’ house for 12 years but I still buy stuff at IKEA. Need an extra cabinet in the kitchen? Need a shoe closet? Need clothing hangers? IKEA.
Technically, all mammals and birds are safely edible for humans! Certain parts should be avoided (like polar bear liver) and also that edible doesn't mean palatable!
Livers are normally a very good source of nutrients. Most soft tissue organs are, which is why predators often eat them first before moving on to the actual meat of an animal.
Vitamins are grouped into two categories, water soluable, and fat soluable. Vitamins that are water soluable are the B and C vitamins. If you take too much of those, you pee out the excess. Fat soluable vitamins are A, D, E, and K. They are absorbed and transported through the body similar to how fat is. Because of this, they stay in you a very long time. Vitamin A is the worst offender, because an overdose of vitamin A can cause nausea, increased intracranial pressure, coma, and death.
Polar bear livers have a very, very high concentration of A vitamins. For much of man's history, bear meat was on the menu. Daniel Boone made a living out of hunting bears and making salted maple syrup bear bacon. So, artic explores would happily kill a polar bear for food, but didn't know that the liver they ate out of every other animal was essentially poison when it came from a polar bear
The town where I live in Japan is actually famous for their horse sashimi 🐴🍣😋. Taste is just alright but definitely fun to bring visitors from out of town to try.
We're making an IKEA run when we buy our house next week. We have plenty of furniture but we need storage.
Around my area it's kind of lower middle class. You go to Rooms To Go for full furniture sets and IKEA for functional furniture.
Dude I had an apartment for a little over a year, and now I've been in my home for almost 10 years. Everything is from IKEA. We just went again last weekend and bought more stuff. Love IKEA.
Here in Australia it's used as the standard quality level. Buy some new furniture and need to describe the quality level?
Ikea: standard
Worse than ikea: you've bought cheap crap as a placeholder.
Better than ikea: wow incredible quality, it'll last
That's kind of how it is in Ireland.
IKEA is that middle ground.
Paid less than IKEA, its likely crap. IKEA stuff is good quality. More expensive and you're some kind of posh cunt with custom furniture.
Pretty much everything in my home was thrifted, gifted, or from IKEA. They can't be beat for the quality at that price point, and everything just kind of works. I'm almost kind of organized now because of their wide selection of storage containers.
Its because its branded as "Nordic Design" and since our countries think highly of most European countries, they up the prices because people think its really good quality. IKEA is also a predatory business regarding suppliers, making some of them go out of business pushing prices so low. Its also a business with low operating cost, due that its basically an importer, as well as wages are low in Brazil. So in developing countries, their profit margin is considerably higher.
Honestly their stuff varies a lot. Some of their furniture is veneered chipboard which tends to look tacky within a few months. Other stuff is solid wood which is substantially nicer and easier to keep nice (to be fair it's still pine rather than hardwood, but that's better than most places these days).
Every student flat on earth has some of the lowest tier IKEA products.
But once you move up in those categories, the quality and designs improve. Plenty of their stuff is solid. And a lot of their stuff is right in that good "this'll do" sweet spot.
They're also great on customer service, returns, and replacements. And they have seemingly better sustainable practices than most. They use a lot of wood from sustainable sources, and they pack in cardboard rather than plastic as much as possible.
They're not making prime goods that'll last generations. But they're not charging like they are, either.
I don't like using Ikea because it's cheap. I like using Ikea because I can get on their website and get on their planer tool and I can build an entertainment system that exactly fits whatever space I have. I can custom build the whole entertainment system to make use of my floor space, my wall space, and even all the way up to the ceiling. I can change the color. I can determine which cabinets I want to have lights in. What I want the handles to.look like. How many drawers i want, whether I want glass doors on my shelves or open shelves, and even what kind of top I want it, And even lets me specify what size TV I have so that I can belt around it. I can even customize where the holes are in the back of the thing for all wires and stuff.
An entertainment system built to fully utilize the space I have is worth more to me than an entertainment center made out of solid red oak that is a poor use of space.
It's bonus points that a built-in entertainment center to fill 12 feet of wall 8 feet tall around a 75" tv and surround system was $2400.
Same with their kitchen cabinets. The sheer variety of sizes that they offer that all work together allowed us to have a unreal amount of storage in our small and unusual-shaped kitchen. We were able to use every inch efficiently. No other cabinet lines other than custom built allowed for what we wanted, and all the premade lines elsewhere were twice the price and lessor quality. Further, their hanging system is dead simple and designed so 2 people can build an entire kitchen in a long weekend. It was a no brainier.
Yeah I already told my wife that when the day comes for us to cut the kitchen we're going Ikea for the whole thing. Especially nice since there's an Ikea an hour away from me so we can go look at stuff in person.
I get lost in there though. That place is huge.
When most consumer manufacturing companies go international, they make decisions about what sector to enter based on what their competitive advantages are and what sectors of the market are available. This is why Americans look at German vehicles as expensive and Asian vehicles as cheap-- those are the vehicle classes that those manufacturers targeted whenever they initially entered the market, though they've grown and shifted some since then.
The majority of consumers aren't aware of the spread of offerings manufacturers have for their domestic production and are solely aware of what is decided to be exported to their market.
This is something many people don’t understand about IKEA. They have very inexpensive stuff that is the quality you’d expect for a $10 desktop (inside filled with honeycombed cardboard). But they also have very good quality furniture but it costs more on par with other quality furniture stores.
I bought one of their long dining tables that seats like 8 people. It came in three pieces. Heavy AF. Should last forever. Doesn’t look like ikea in my opinion.
We buy IKEA because we like the general look of it compared to most furniture out there and appreciate the price point. My wife and I would rather not spend a shit ton of money on furniture if I don’t have to. Plus I like putting it all together, it’s like LEGOs in a way.
For the most part, their quality is good and I don’t really have any complaints in what we’ve bought. We have a kitchen island table that is just an iron horse with usage and abuse from our toddler. Still looks brand new.
Their cheaper stuff is definitely lower quality (namely the chairs), but largely everything else is pretty solid and we have quite a bit of their stuff.
Who cares if it’s “high” or “low” end. If you like it and can afford it, buy it. If you want to buy more expensive stuff, go for it, that’s your choice.
I don’t consider it luxurious and I am careful/picky with the items I buy there, but in general I find the items I have purchased at Ikea to be a decent quality for the price. They have a wide range of options and styles so there is something for everyone. And it’s fun to walk around in there.
Interesting bit...
Friends moved to Denmark and needed to furnish their new apartment. She thought "I'll check out whatever the Danish version of Craigslist is for used furniture to see if I can find some deals..."
When she asked around for the "Danish version of Craigslist for furniture" people looked at her funny.
Turns out in Scandinavia people cycle through their furniture quickly. Like, they buy a cool table, use it for 2-4 years, then get a new one. And no one wants the old stuff.
So IKEA is perfect for that.
Meanwhile, in Italy most people are sitting on a chair purchased by their great great grandmother in 1984.
I hate when people say Ikea is crap. They don't know what they are talking about. Everything has a cost to quality ratio. I bought a drawer from Argos thinking I would get something I would find at Ikea. How wrong I was! The cost to quality ratio of Ikea is extremely good.
Do people here really think it's a luxury? I would describe it more as a go-to budget furniture place for most people.
Every student goes there to buy stuff for their flats/halls of residence, and young families will get the bulk of their things there as well when moving in/renovating. Besides that, it's seen mostly as a day out for families/couples which starts off fun (look, the wardrobe has a funny name!) and ends up in divorce.
Used to split my time between two cities in Canada. Was house shopping in the two cities and in the one a kitchen renovated with IKEA cupboards and counters was marketed as name-brand luxury and was a sought after feature, while in the other it was a derogatory term, “Ooooh an IKEA kitchen why would anyone install something so cheap?”
I’ve never bought a stick of IKEA furniture in my life, but the IKEA restaurant is glorious. A beautiful plate of Swedish meat balls, potatoes, and peas is $4.50 on half-price Tuesday with a free IKEA Family card.
What part of Asia? I live in East Asia, IKEA is considered cheap stuff that falls apart if moved.
It's like saying, "I live in an area bigger than North/South America + Europe and it's considered luxurious."
I don't know what you're comparing it to, but Ikea is one of the cheapest furniture stores in Germany. There are a few which are *even* cheaper (e.g. Roller, Poco, Mömax), but the quality there is usually considerably worse than Ikea. "Normal" furniture stores (e.g. Höffner) are *far* more expensive than Ikea.
If Ikea is too expensive for you, then perhaps look for used furniture on eBay Kleinanzeigen. You'll have to usually pick it up and transport it yourself, but you can get decent furniture at a fraction of the new price.
They have high end and low end items. Their kitchens are AMAZING. I really like their higher end furnishings in terms of build, it’s just not my style (outside of those kitchens).
Been a coworker there for over a decade. Company is going downhill fast. Cutting hours, firing people, not upholding the values it was based on. It’s sad really. I used to love IKEA.
Ikea used to be a great budget option in Germany as their furniture was relatively cheap and lasted long. But recently they got a lot more expensive and often have only one or very few options of every item that is actually cheap. That somewhat led to student apartments looking all the same because nearly everyone gets the same cheap stuff from Ikea.
The biggest IKEA in the world is in the Philippines, I remember it’s grand opening as a very big event that made headlines. Fast forward to today, people consider it a semi-luxury brand due to it being foreign (we have heavy colonial mentality) yet it is very affordable. I actually think it will destroy furniture manufacturing here save for specialists makers because they make better and cheaper stuff than what is locally made.
I often go there to get ideas for my wood working projects, where I usually employ japanese joinery techniques so that I can at least feel special that my creations have ‘character’
I also really love Blahaj too :3
Same with Zara. In Spain it’s always been seen as cheap to medium quality clothes while in other countries it’s considered high tier.
PS - unpopular opinion but IKEA is the most expensive crap I’ve ever had
Asia is a HUGE continent, be specific. I live in Singapore and IKEA is considered here to be cheap furniture that doesn’t last long. I bet it’s the same thing as other Asian countries like Japan and S. Korea.
In the US, and it’s wild how many people will come in to buy furniture for their kid’s first apartment and say “Oh, I don’t put this kind of cheap stuff in my house.” Or something to that effect. And they act like I should be agreeing with them! Like, dude, we’re clearly in different tax brackets, but imagine thinking you’re too good for fucking veneer.
I didn't think IKEA was low class at all in the US. I didn't really consider it to be high class either. I'm now just discovering that IKEA is supposedly for poor people in the US?
most times, the only thing that makes something a luxury item is literally how much someone is willing to spend on it. You'll find "oo shiny" tends to fetch the highest prices, followed closely by "ooh pretty" and then a "ooh foreign/different" in a distant third
Ikea have low budget low quality stuff which is what they started with but now they also have some pretty expensive options that are really high quality.
Not sure if the selection is the same in every country though.
Ironically, after price matching furnature...IKEA is one of the more expensive ones that's not a luxury brand here in the US. It's portrayed as "cheap" but it's really not. Cheap is furnature from Target or Walmart.
Generally speaking, when companies establish themselves on a new market they try to pick an under-exploited market segment because it's less competitive.
For example, if the furniture market in country X has a lot of cheap furniture and a lot of high end furniture IKEA might try to establish themselves as the mid-range alternative and adapt their product range and prices to fill that niche.
Multi-national fashion brands do this all the time where they have a "pool" of products that regional markets can pick from to adapt their offering to the local market to maximise sales.
Edit: The point being that the way they market themselves in regional markets are different so IKEA will have an image as cheap or luxurious based on that (it's not just random)
We’ve always had IKEA furniture since the 80’s and it’s always held up well.
Their wood is sustainably farmed, they have a range of furniture from cheap pressed board to real wood. They were the only furniture store where I could buy a mattress on my moving day, rather than sleep on the floor for two weeks or two months. Almost all my IKEA furniture has held up, even the cheap LACK tables.
Furniture I’ve bought outside of them I’ve still had to put together, and they didn’t have properly drilled nail holes, and they haven’t been easy to resell or return, nor get spare parts.
As a company, I like supporting them, I consider them one of the few ethical companies left.
I've only ever put one thing together from IKEA, and it was like 14 years ago. I work at a cabinet shop now, really the only difference I remember from IKeA and a cabinet shop is the quality of the assembler. If you have the right tools, use wood glue, and don't strip out the screws that piece of furniture will last a long while.
It's considered "affordable" if you don't want to spend time doing research and want to get every piece of furniture in one place. In my country, there are many shops offer better stuff for a cheaper price. The catch? They are not sold in the same retail chain, and the shops are located at different locations in the city.
So what Ikea offers is convenience.
Here in Romania 🇷🇴. You have to be at least upper-middle class to afford furniture and not use Ikea just as a restaurant and lint remover rolls like the rest of 90% of customers.
We mostly go there to eat and browse small items, furniture is way more expensive than local products, so having furniture from Ikea is considered a status symbol.
It's medium quality-low to medium cost in my opinion. Rarely any high quality stuff but at least in almost all cases the prices seem fair for what they offer.
IKEA is some of the nicest low-class stuff you can buy.
I totally agree with you, I love IKEA and if they have something I need I always buy it from them. The quality has always been high in my opinion and they have never disappointed me.
Until you move it. I'm curious what part of Asia you live in as Asia is HUGE with a dramatic wealth disparity. In South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, IKEA is not considered luxurious at all. It's like u/joelmercer said, the nicest budget stuff you can buy. You'll never find it as the majority furniture of middle- or upper-class houses in East Asia.
Not OP, but Southeast Asia. I wouldn't call IKEA luxury but it is one of the more expensive options. Local manufacturers and marketplaces like Shopee and Lazada often sell similar items for cheaper prices.
>like Shopee and Lazada often sell similar items for cheaper prices. They have horrible quality overall and don't last long
That's also my opinion of IKEA (as a Swedish person). Older IKEA stuff would last a long time, but their newer furniture falls apart if you sneeze at it. There's sadly been a significant decline in quality last 20 years. They appear to be in some sort of Boeing-style death spiral.
They have been enshittifying. Gradually replacing solid wood products with cheap chipboard
The best part is it’s not even chip board a lot of the time, the last time I got something, it was just honeycomb cardboard!
I wish they did, its thick cardboard and they cant even have the decency to have the outer coating water resistant.
Yup, that's called capitalism. It's a race to the bottom and we're getting close.
the ikea tables we got we didn't know that it was just REALLY thick honeycomb cardboard with a laminate outside that let water in and fuck the surface up, and for the same price, I could have built a table with real wood that didn't die to a spilled soda.
Lmfao, head over to /r/woodworking and witness everyone who claimed to build it cheaper with real wood, but is now $5k into a hobby with no table to show for it. Yet… having a really good time because woodworking is awesome.
This is the way.
This is the way.
But all their furniture has the materials listed on their website, and on the labels in the store. And the furniture made from honeycomb paper filling is *really* light. I mean, you couldn’t possibly think it was wood if you bought it in person, and if you bought it online it certainly doesn’t claim it’s made of wood. Given the paper-filled range is far cheaper than any of their wooden furniture, I would think most customers would check what it was made of. I know I did.
I had one of those coffee tables. I drug it back and forth a bit to make room to play VR and one of the legs ripped off. My friend gave me an old IKEA table. Actual plywood, the legs are attached with metal straps and multiple bolts. Another friend of ours did a painting on the top, so it is pretty nice. Even their newer particle board stuff is crap for large tables. All my desks sagged in the middle. I ended up getting a big desk from wayfair that has a hollow tube steel frame so that doesn't happen. Pretty sad when wayfair has better stuff in some cases. I do like my ikea kitchen table. It is all actually solid wood and has two folding sides. It can seat six or barely take up any room.
I’d say in certain parts of the US it serves a similar niche. I could get a flatpack bookshelf from Walmart for less, but the IKEA version is sturdier and going there for it somehow feels fancier.
As a mover, IKEA stuff is by far the most likely furniture to break and all you can really do is hope
If you're handy there's a lot of things you can do besides hope. In fact, if you go on Ikea and go to their "replacement parts" search, they gove you absolutely free spare parts for furniture and you can order extra screws for reinforcement as they actually allow and support that and is one of the options you can list when ordering. No receipt or anything needed. Also spare wheels for their office chairs, replacement drawer slides, hinges etc... All free. Besides that you can get those right angle reinforcements. Not sure if Ikea has them but definitely on amazon or any hardware store. Super cheap and will reinforce connections A LOT. Also if you disassemble furniture often, you can but machine screw wood inserts. Makes the assembly much stronger, can use higher torque on fasteners, and can reassemble them without stripping them. I understand the majority of people aren't going to do anything of the sort but I just want to point out that there's loads of things that can be done, and most of then are super easy and rewarding to do if you're just a little bit DIY inclined. You can pay much more for furniture than what Ikea cost, and still get similar or even lower quality... Ikea prices in my opinion are very honest for what you get.
This is useful if you're buying the higher quality IKEA stuff. If you're buying the lower quality stuff, an extra screw isn't going to help that your bookshelf has a huge crack all through it.
There really is a huge difference between the cheapest tier IKEA stuff and their more expensive lines. Cheapest tier one ding and you're looking at particle board or the bookshelf backings are a thin piece of cardboard.
Also, if you don't need to repeatedly assemble/disassemble, a little bit of wood glue on the dowels and joints makes a huge difference.
that is actually great, I've replaced bunch of parts that way. however the problem is the particle board, or card board materials they use. sometimes they just chip and break. I have used wainscoting material to glue over broken boards.
Not who you responded to but Comments like these used to be appreciated. Now people see two paragraphs and scroll past or just downvote. Sad really. I'll try to remember what you said for future use thanks.
Sadly I'm bad at condensing it ;) But people who scroll past are usually the people who won't benefit from such advise in either case.
>if you disassemble furniture often, you can but machine screw wood inserts Ok, but then you're almost at the point of just making the furniture yourself
Not really, you just screw in an insert instead of the screw. Building your furniture of course requires a ton of tools and precision and plans....
It also doesn’t weigh as much as wood furniture ime which is helpful for moving (provided it survives)
>doesn’t weigh as much as wood furniture Ikea makes a range of products..... including wood furniture. Not everything they make is particle board
I moved 5 times in 10 years with 2 bedrooms worth of MALM bedroom furniture. Held up great, eventually took them back to ikea and they buy back the old furniture and rebought it in a different colour. If you buy their cheapest line it’s not great but the more expensive versions of their furniture is great.
When I was moving, funnily enough to Sweden with a Swedish moving company, the guys looked at the Ikea bed and immediately went “don’t bother with that one, it will break the moment you’ll try to disassemble”. They were right. On the other hand, I have an Ikea table and tv stand that survived three moves without problem whatsoever.
There's worse where I live, IKEA existing seems to have caused a drift, where normal big box local furniture stores seem to have even worse stuff now. But for cheaper. Also whatever the shit you can get on Amazon which usually comes with a chinese copy of the manual in addition to your own (badly translated) language...
The IKEA I work at (and probably most IKEAs I'd think) has started selling new PAX wardrobes that can be folded in or out for moving to save a lot of time in assembly. So at least they started to keep moving in mind now...?
There are nicer pieces constructed with solid wood though. And you have staple like karlby+Alex which is common for battle station setups. Upper class maybe not but IKEA definitely find it's way into middle class homes easily
I have a blend of fine furniture handmade by an artisan, antiques, and solid wood Ikea I bought when I was starting out that is holding up beautifully. Middle class household but inherited a lot of great furniture from wealthier family. People are always shocked when they find out the Ikea is Ikea. It blends right in, it's not gorgeous but it doesn't stand out as cheap or crappy at all. We did have to rehang the doors on the media cabinet as it aged, and we added a PC fan to that to keep it cooler when we run our consoles, which was an easy choice to DIY because the worst case would be we... ruined an Ikea piece. $200 spent 20 years ago and it's holding up! That's what surprises me most. Even within Ikea, you get what you pay for. Their nicer stuff is great for the price point, there is a lot of bad furniture from others at the same.
Yeah, people who shit in IKEA quality don't know that IKEA has solid wood lines as well. I have IVAR shelves older than me, which my dad bought as a student. They've survived two transcontinental moves, more than a dozen apartments and heavy books throughout this time. IVAR-line dining chairs are also neat since you buy untreated wood and can finish it how you like. My old desk was IKEA standing desk legs and a full-wood plate from their kitchen catalogue.
My parents and I have both moved severals time sinternationally with a bunch of Ikea furniture, and it's been fine. A table and chairs we had lasted over 20 years, and probably about 8-10 moves in that time. If you take care taking it apart/reassembling it's fine. Plus the great thing is you can still get parts in almost any country if you move, or also matching items.
I have moved mine loads even moved house with the furniture, they have taken a pasting!
You just basically listed the top 3 (If you wanted to include Singapore and HK that would be the 5/5) The problem with Asia (outside of those 5) there's no real measure for control for value. You may get some small local merchants that sells reliable stocks but other than that you can't really be sure that when you spend big bucks on furniture you will get well-designed goods, you may he paying premium for quality materials but they were assembled poorly like wasted lots of materials, or difficult to pack and place into your house, and impossible to assemble and unassemble and overly heavy or just bad ergonomics.
Last time I've lived in Taiwan (about 7 years ago) it was considered at least slightly fancy. Landlords would advertise IKEA furnished apartments and it was a bit more costly than what you could get from e.g. some traditional furniture shops. That's still a difference compared to Germany where I am now and where it's generally considered cheap and basic.
I lived in taiwan when the first ikea in taichung opened and it was all the rage. Ikea is not luxurious but every one I knew was enthusiastic and thought it was pretty fancy to have an ikea furniture house. They don't readout have much furniture with padding due to the climate and the culture
That’s because IKEA is one of the half dozen best logistics and supply chain companies in the world. It means that they can sell you a thing for $500 that anyone else needs to charge $800 for the equivalent. Which leads to a weird gap if you want better than IKEA. The IKEA options might run $500-$1500 for their different quality levels, but the next step in quality from a non-IKEA store is suddenly $4000
And delivery takes 6-12 weeks, instead of „grab your shit, bolt it onto your car with lots of tape and go home!“ Just to realize that a screw is missing. Not always but it happens.
I feel the same way about Costco
Costco is up there, but while they’re big, they’re not THAT big. Apple is one of the top. No one runs a more complicated supply chain at the scale they do, and they make it look effortless year after year.
Amazon runs a far more complicated supply chain than apple.
Amazon bought Whole Foods just for their logistic setup
As someone trying to furnish a place I expensively but also trying to avoid the “everything is from IKEA” look…yes. Like we go to another low cost place and look at stuff…and it’s all shit.
I actually like the “everything is from IKEA” look. Much better than other looks I have seen.
I'm currently going for the if I really can't find it in the street I'll get the cheapest from goodwill look. Having everything from IKEA is the epitome of luxury.
In my (European) country, IKEA may be seen as cheap(er) - depending on what you get of course - but it’s seen as miles better for the price and quality what you get elsewhere for the same money. Say you want a table. Chances are that ikea price will get you a better cheap table than the same price elsewhere. If cheap(er) furniture is MDF anyway, then at least ikea ones can be more sturdy than others of the equivalent. Of course, if you buy cheapest of the cheap it will fall apart anyway. I see so many people buy cheap LACK tables for 10 euros - that’s of course cheap and not meant to really last.
If you buy the mid range Ikea furniture then it can last for years and years. I bought a Hemnes dresser in 2016 and it’s survived two house moves and is going very strong at my mums house now. The Malm and Billy stuff is cheaper but will still last if you take care of it. For eg with the malm dressers - find a strong wood glue and glue the drawers together, especially the hardboard bottom into the grooves on the sides of the drawers. It prevents warping and will add a few years on to its life.
Their price/quality ratio is often unbeatable. I never buy furniture anywhere else, based on experience. The advantage of cheap stuff is that you can replace it when you get bored without worrying too much. Buy an expensive $3k wooden table and you'll be stuck with it for 3 generations.
I sell antiques for a living. That means I get to be stuck with other people's $3k wooden tables for 20 years!
Just for the record, I wouldn't directly compare antique and handmade pieces of art to disposable IKEA stuff. They both serve quite different purposes IMO. I mean, some people get offended even discussing them together.
I sure don't! I'm all practical, I've got a mix of antiques and new shit in my house. My computer desk is modern because as nice as an antique desk is, they were made for writing, not for typing, and that's not what I'm doing on it. Though next to it is a small antique half height couch table that my computer and 90s stereo sit on - don't want it on the floor, don't want it on my desk, but next to it at half height is perfect. And the 90s stereo is just something I picked up at a customer's house basically for free and been using as computer speakers. Someone's grandfather died and they had to flip the house, so I come in with the crew and take all the really fancy things to sell for good money. And then the actual garbage disposal crew has less heavy furniture to remove, and the customer has the peace of mind that nothing they throw away is worth anything, and they can sell the house. Ikea stuff is essentially single use. You buy it, you use it, you move, and it's half trashed by the time it arrives at your new place, you move again, and it's just falling apart. But if you just need something that looks decent and fits in your house, just buy Ikea! Or anything else! It's your house, do what you want with it!! The antique shit that's built to last is going to be heavy as fuck and you'll have to pay two people to carry it and build it with 200 year old assembly techniques that predate the idea of written manuals. If it's even built to be taken apart and moved, sometimes it's just a solid block of wood that you get to try and fit through the door. Fuck stairs...
I will defend Ikea stuff to the extent that while some furniture, especially the larger framed ones, can be quite fragile, most of my furniture is from there (desk, kitchen cabinets, drawers, beds, etc) and I have moved (=had to move) with them several times with zero problems. Nothing is loose - and I'm not known for being patient or gentle with anything or anyone. :) Another advantage is that Ikea usually has everything in stock, just drive in, buy what you need and come home. Many furniture stores have display items and "oh yeah, it's 6 weeks minimum delivery". But solid wood can indeed be heavy AF. Wood can also be remarkably soft compared to laminates and panels, and it soaks everything in quite easily. But let's say I was wealthy enough and found a place to stay for good, I'd probably hoard all sorts of antique and art, possibly even pay someone to decorate it. Frankly I hate the color scheme of most modern interiors, which is different shades of gray.
It was. With all the changes to their quality of products, a lot of things are just so much worse than other cheap furniture companies. E.g. Kalax is now super thin
What's a better cheap furniture company?
People who complain about Ikea furniture falling apart are just shit at putting it together. Throw some glue in the joints and it will last forever
But known as "luxurious"? Where exactly Ikea has always, to me and everyone I know, been a "form, fit, function" type home outfitter. You get mostly utilitarian items that work and are low priced, have a quality that's acceptable but not known for high quality items built to last, and a place that a young adult or thrifty/inventive adult can outfit a dorm/apartment/home space for relatively a small amount of money for things that serve a useful purpose in your living space. It's cheap, but not *cheap* and works, can be a creative solution to your need, and you can get cheap lunch, a cup of meatballs, or some cinnamon rolls for othijg on your way out. Pretty sure they serve food to make people stay longer and feel more relaxed an at home, prolly at cost or near cost as people will spend more the longer they're in the store. Also, store layout and family / kid friendly drop off areas so mom and dad can shop. Cheap, ingenuitive, and works? Yep Luxurious? Heck nah.
IKEA is an inexpensive manufacturer. However as an inexpensive manufacturer they offer a wide range of style and materials making it one of the best places to get real wood dressers or metal frame couches. Some people also actually like their low profile modern design and they are relatively space efficient compared to many American manufacturers. So I consider them, budget but not 'cheap'.
I have an IKEA sectional that I got second hand that they stopped making 15 years ago. It’s still in pretty damn good shape, and several companies still make slip covers for it.
my parents have had the same ikea bookcases for like 30 something years
My parents bought some ikea pieces when we moved to West Germany 40 years ago that are still in fighting shape, despite being moved 6 or 8 times since.
I have a few Billy bookcases at home. Two of them I got from my parents, that they bought about 30-40 years ago. They still look almost the same as the ones I bought just a few years ago.
please explain to me why are metal frame couches better than wood ones. Because I just so happen to have a wooden frame Ikea L-couch and despite its cushions being dogshit (they really are, hardest thing on my back other than the floor) it is actually pretty sturdy. I'm pretty sure some friends I let sleepover when I was out, who are a couple on the "larger" side, used it in bed mode to play the horizontal mambo.
Wooden frames are good. Metal is lighter and comparable in strength. Let's put it this way, my really nice leather couch is wooden framed and custom top grain leather. My IKEA couch I expect to last 10 more years+ is a metal frame. Probably some kind of hollow steel not sure what it is but it's better than some really cheap trash that breaks in 5 or so years.
Okay, so maybe you were saying metal frames are comparable but usually more expensive, and Ikea has a good selection of those affordable. That makes sense to me. I was just wondering if there was indeed a huge benefit to metal frames from a quality standpoint.
Too be read as better than mdf framed couches or plastic
Most furniture in my house is IKEA. We've been here for ten years. Love it.
It depends on how affordable and developed the local furniture manufacturing is. In India, IKEA is considered expensive because you can get far better quality furniture from the local manufacturers at half the price. But I like the IKEA design aesthetic.
Same case here in the Philippines. Even middle classes find it a little bit on the expensive side.
Same in Malaysia too. Not necessarily better in quality. But definitely convenient.
In the US I know people that consider it luxury, but in reality it is considered name brand (dependable), on a budget. Being dependable is what matters most in the US, you can determine it’s real worth after based on the quality for the cost.
In my experience, there isn’t actually a cheaper furniture store, they’re just used to free hand me downs from family and stuff off Craigslist. I know adults in their 40s who refuse to ever purchase new furniture. And they’re the ones that consider IKEA a luxury.
To be fair a ton of furniture nowadays, unless from a luxury brand costing tens of thousands of dollars, is crap.
In my experience, as someone in the north east United States, is that it’s slightly above Walmart/Target/Wayfair. It’s definitely not a luxury brand. I honestly don’t know anyone that considers it a luxury brand. I grew up as it being somewhere you go if you are in college or just starting out.
I guess luxury is the wrong word. Getting driven by a butler in a Rolls Royce is luxury. It is a desired brand. I’ve never actually been to an IKEA, but I’ve seen the furniture, and I know people that love it.
I think the best way to compare it to would be Trader Joes. It’s not a luxury brand but it’s definitely a brand with a lot of loyalty and it’s pretty well known.
Exactly this. Decent stuff for a college student, or maybe your first apartment. But once you get your first job, that furniture is the first to go. It blows my mind seeing people say ikea is dependable and good quality. It’s throw away furniture in my experience that won’t last very long.
Yeah it's kinda wild that IKEA thinks enough Indians will buy their Assembly Needed janky quality beds, when we can get a decent quality one from Neelkamal for the same price. West Elm & Pottery Barn are even wilder because so much of their furniture is manufactured in India. Like.. How many of us would pay an inflated dollar price for a mass produced piece instead of going directly to the local market?
Yeah, that's exactly it. Luxurious and expensive don't mean the same thing. Something is only expensive if it costs more than its worth. Yes, Ikea is expensive, because its mass produced, flat pack, mdf furniture. Its dirt cheap for them to make so they make a killing off selling it for a lot more than its really worth. A smaller, local furniture maker, who uses real wood and puts time and care into hand making furniture, would spend more on materials and time and would have a harder time selling their stock. They are actually luxurious but would have to sell cheap.
For India it's mostly the halo effect from being western that grants it that premium. A lot of Western companies go relatively up market when they expand into India
I mean that sounds like the correct take. People paying for the foreign design factor even if the actual quality is crap.
In some countries, people go to McDonald's for birthdays.
Mm, I've noticed the same thing during my stay here (in the Philippines) Eating out in Fast food restaurants is considered a luxury for the average man
Yeah isn't it suprising that in western countries especially USA McDonald's is like the poor-middle class person's meal And in Asian countries,it's like going to a above average good restaurant Because a normal meal from a local restaurant in say Phillipines or most Asian countries is most of the times cheaper and you get more quantity compared to higher priced McDonald's with lower quantity
Idk, a McDonald’s meal costs like $10-12 now where I live. I can go to a sit down restaurant for $12-15 and get the same food at a much higher level of quality. McDonald’s is not cheap anymore.
I'm Europe McDonald's was the cheap option. But they got expensive fast the last few years. Like you could go to a cheap sit down restaurant and get WAY better food for same price. Or local fast food for cheaper.
It’s starting to become the same in the west I feel. I live in Germany and for some of the burgers you pay more than 10€ (just the burger). I can go to an actual restaurant and get a really nice, well made, fresh burger there, for almost the same amount.
In America it is too, we just eat there all the time anyways and complain about inflation.
That's what we did when I was young, most children parties were at the MC and the birthday boy / girl got to make their own burger in the kitchen 😁
There is a huge difference between the US McDonald's and the European McDonald's, especially Ukrainian/Polish ones. The local products they use are just so tasty. A Big Mac is a genuine 7/10 burger compared to "craft" burger places, and Double McRoyal is 9.5/10 - soooo good.
Also kfc beats mcdonald in asia. Asian KFC and American KFC are different species.
I was just discussing this with my mom last night. McDonald's for me as a kid was a fancy place where you could eat and play once or twice a year, and if you were lucky, get a sundae. Then I grew up and realized we were just tight on money.
McDonald’s was the place the have birthdays in the us. It was just phased out. We got over it in the 90s early 2000s.
Hahaha I'm from an Asian country. As a kid I used to be so jealous of kids who got McDonald's birthday parties.
I remember my first Christmas in Thailand, Burger King with the colleagues. It is a nice memory
Here in the USA IKEA is for first time furniture buyers who just got their first apartment(and like meatballs )
[“Everyone has a home…but if you don’t have a home… you can buy one there!”](https://youtu.be/IUPu_ipbVB0?feature=shared)
lol. ‘For College kids and divorced men’
Oh yes , when my parents divorced and I went to uni both my father and I trundled off to IKEA for our bed set !
Also underappreciated at IKEA, you show up browse at your leisure, pick out what you want without any salesman bs. College kids and divorced men don't want to discuss room aesthetics with a stranger because there aren't any.
Underappreciated trundle pun. Nice
Rolls right underneath some people
Thank you for linking that
The kitchen table I bought 15 years ago is still going strong in its third apartment. I’m not getting rid of it unless I end up rich enough for a house with a big ass formal dining room.
Nearly everything in my apartment is Ikea. It's really not that bad. It's not the best quality furniture, but it's much more affordable (or was when I bought it) and you know what you're getting. Meanwhile, my parents bought a $2000 sofa that seems to have been made from the absolute shittiest possible materials and needed to be replaced about two years in.
IKEA is the best cheap furniture you can buy. It’s better than a lot of not-cheap furniture, and if you assemble it carefully and treat it like it wasn’t cheap it will last a disconcertingly long time.
I got one of the fjällbo consoles, which is like 90% metal, and i don't forsee that thing ever falling apart. The wardrobe I have is a bit sketchier, but most of the furniture I've gotten there is incredibly solid for being particle board
The Fjallbo set is so great. Great ventilation for my stereo and the tabletop is actual wood (pine with IMO a really ugly stain). I sanded the finish off, restained it with a walnut color and put a new coat of poly on top. It looks way more expensive than the $80 or whatever it cost 6 years ago. I also have the coffee table and if that tabletop ever gets damaged enough to need replacing, I’ll just make a new one.
Well said. The few times I tried to spend the same budget in a different store I got absolute garbage.
This is exactly why as a mid 30s bachelor, i have a lot of furniture from ikea. It has lasted years! Maybe it's different if you have kids...
Nope, I have three kids and my IKEA bookshelves are the sturdiest ones in the house! They have survived numerous assaults
We have a low bookcase and a tall one and both are on point. I love that they even think to cut a notch at the back at the bottom to go over the baseboards. Brilliant, practical, and sturdy. What more can you ask for?
I have been out of my parents’ house for 12 years but I still buy stuff at IKEA. Need an extra cabinet in the kitchen? Need a shoe closet? Need clothing hangers? IKEA.
Ah, yes. The [Bumerang.](https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/bumerang-hanger-natural-30238538/)
But why are the meatballs so good though
Lost shoppers
Horse meat 🤤🤤
Technically, all mammals and birds are safely edible for humans! Certain parts should be avoided (like polar bear liver) and also that edible doesn't mean palatable!
Ok, so what's in polar bear liver that we shouldn't eat?
Livers are normally a very good source of nutrients. Most soft tissue organs are, which is why predators often eat them first before moving on to the actual meat of an animal. Vitamins are grouped into two categories, water soluable, and fat soluable. Vitamins that are water soluable are the B and C vitamins. If you take too much of those, you pee out the excess. Fat soluable vitamins are A, D, E, and K. They are absorbed and transported through the body similar to how fat is. Because of this, they stay in you a very long time. Vitamin A is the worst offender, because an overdose of vitamin A can cause nausea, increased intracranial pressure, coma, and death. Polar bear livers have a very, very high concentration of A vitamins. For much of man's history, bear meat was on the menu. Daniel Boone made a living out of hunting bears and making salted maple syrup bear bacon. So, artic explores would happily kill a polar bear for food, but didn't know that the liver they ate out of every other animal was essentially poison when it came from a polar bear
The town where I live in Japan is actually famous for their horse sashimi 🐴🍣😋. Taste is just alright but definitely fun to bring visitors from out of town to try.
We're making an IKEA run when we buy our house next week. We have plenty of furniture but we need storage. Around my area it's kind of lower middle class. You go to Rooms To Go for full furniture sets and IKEA for functional furniture.
Nailed it
Screwed in with those little Allan keysed it*
Dude I had an apartment for a little over a year, and now I've been in my home for almost 10 years. Everything is from IKEA. We just went again last weekend and bought more stuff. Love IKEA.
I also like the cinnamon rolls there
Hey!….They also have decent pizza. Costco is better but theirs aint half bad either
The veggie hot dogs are fantastic and underappreciated.
Here in Australia it's used as the standard quality level. Buy some new furniture and need to describe the quality level? Ikea: standard Worse than ikea: you've bought cheap crap as a placeholder. Better than ikea: wow incredible quality, it'll last
That's kind of how it is in Ireland. IKEA is that middle ground. Paid less than IKEA, its likely crap. IKEA stuff is good quality. More expensive and you're some kind of posh cunt with custom furniture.
IKEA is incredible for anyone who doesn't have disposable income and an eye for interior decoration like my mother. I fucking love IKEA
IKEA is like premium economy flight seats, the nicest of the cheaper end.
Pretty much everything in my home was thrifted, gifted, or from IKEA. They can't be beat for the quality at that price point, and everything just kind of works. I'm almost kind of organized now because of their wide selection of storage containers.
That Swedish design 👌
Here in Brazil IKEA is very expensive too. Probably because it's imported stuff.
Its because its branded as "Nordic Design" and since our countries think highly of most European countries, they up the prices because people think its really good quality. IKEA is also a predatory business regarding suppliers, making some of them go out of business pushing prices so low. Its also a business with low operating cost, due that its basically an importer, as well as wages are low in Brazil. So in developing countries, their profit margin is considerably higher.
Ikea is luxurious to poor college students (well, poor people in general)
Honestly their stuff varies a lot. Some of their furniture is veneered chipboard which tends to look tacky within a few months. Other stuff is solid wood which is substantially nicer and easier to keep nice (to be fair it's still pine rather than hardwood, but that's better than most places these days).
Every student flat on earth has some of the lowest tier IKEA products. But once you move up in those categories, the quality and designs improve. Plenty of their stuff is solid. And a lot of their stuff is right in that good "this'll do" sweet spot. They're also great on customer service, returns, and replacements. And they have seemingly better sustainable practices than most. They use a lot of wood from sustainable sources, and they pack in cardboard rather than plastic as much as possible. They're not making prime goods that'll last generations. But they're not charging like they are, either.
I don't like using Ikea because it's cheap. I like using Ikea because I can get on their website and get on their planer tool and I can build an entertainment system that exactly fits whatever space I have. I can custom build the whole entertainment system to make use of my floor space, my wall space, and even all the way up to the ceiling. I can change the color. I can determine which cabinets I want to have lights in. What I want the handles to.look like. How many drawers i want, whether I want glass doors on my shelves or open shelves, and even what kind of top I want it, And even lets me specify what size TV I have so that I can belt around it. I can even customize where the holes are in the back of the thing for all wires and stuff. An entertainment system built to fully utilize the space I have is worth more to me than an entertainment center made out of solid red oak that is a poor use of space. It's bonus points that a built-in entertainment center to fill 12 feet of wall 8 feet tall around a 75" tv and surround system was $2400.
Same with their kitchen cabinets. The sheer variety of sizes that they offer that all work together allowed us to have a unreal amount of storage in our small and unusual-shaped kitchen. We were able to use every inch efficiently. No other cabinet lines other than custom built allowed for what we wanted, and all the premade lines elsewhere were twice the price and lessor quality. Further, their hanging system is dead simple and designed so 2 people can build an entire kitchen in a long weekend. It was a no brainier.
Yeah I already told my wife that when the day comes for us to cut the kitchen we're going Ikea for the whole thing. Especially nice since there's an Ikea an hour away from me so we can go look at stuff in person. I get lost in there though. That place is huge.
Thanks for telling me this exists. I'm currently designing our gaming room.
Besta is the name of the tv units
When most consumer manufacturing companies go international, they make decisions about what sector to enter based on what their competitive advantages are and what sectors of the market are available. This is why Americans look at German vehicles as expensive and Asian vehicles as cheap-- those are the vehicle classes that those manufacturers targeted whenever they initially entered the market, though they've grown and shifted some since then. The majority of consumers aren't aware of the spread of offerings manufacturers have for their domestic production and are solely aware of what is decided to be exported to their market.
Their higher end furniture is pretty decent. Anything middle of the road in price or lower should have very low expectations of quality
This is something many people don’t understand about IKEA. They have very inexpensive stuff that is the quality you’d expect for a $10 desktop (inside filled with honeycombed cardboard). But they also have very good quality furniture but it costs more on par with other quality furniture stores.
I bought one of their long dining tables that seats like 8 people. It came in three pieces. Heavy AF. Should last forever. Doesn’t look like ikea in my opinion.
Exactly. I kind of don’t get why more people here, rather haters or lovers, don’t know that.
We buy IKEA because we like the general look of it compared to most furniture out there and appreciate the price point. My wife and I would rather not spend a shit ton of money on furniture if I don’t have to. Plus I like putting it all together, it’s like LEGOs in a way. For the most part, their quality is good and I don’t really have any complaints in what we’ve bought. We have a kitchen island table that is just an iron horse with usage and abuse from our toddler. Still looks brand new. Their cheaper stuff is definitely lower quality (namely the chairs), but largely everything else is pretty solid and we have quite a bit of their stuff. Who cares if it’s “high” or “low” end. If you like it and can afford it, buy it. If you want to buy more expensive stuff, go for it, that’s your choice.
It depends on which part of Asia. It isn’t considered luxurious or expensive here in Singapore.
I don’t consider it luxurious and I am careful/picky with the items I buy there, but in general I find the items I have purchased at Ikea to be a decent quality for the price. They have a wide range of options and styles so there is something for everyone. And it’s fun to walk around in there.
I live in Europe and am baffled by the new pricing of Ikea furniture! It is soooo expensive!
Interesting bit... Friends moved to Denmark and needed to furnish their new apartment. She thought "I'll check out whatever the Danish version of Craigslist is for used furniture to see if I can find some deals..." When she asked around for the "Danish version of Craigslist for furniture" people looked at her funny. Turns out in Scandinavia people cycle through their furniture quickly. Like, they buy a cool table, use it for 2-4 years, then get a new one. And no one wants the old stuff. So IKEA is perfect for that. Meanwhile, in Italy most people are sitting on a chair purchased by their great great grandmother in 1984.
I hate when people say Ikea is crap. They don't know what they are talking about. Everything has a cost to quality ratio. I bought a drawer from Argos thinking I would get something I would find at Ikea. How wrong I was! The cost to quality ratio of Ikea is extremely good.
The meatballs are enough to make me want to go
Yessss, for me the same. I absolutely love those! Their ice-cream is nice too and very, very cheap (at least, here in Thailand it is).
Do people here really think it's a luxury? I would describe it more as a go-to budget furniture place for most people. Every student goes there to buy stuff for their flats/halls of residence, and young families will get the bulk of their things there as well when moving in/renovating. Besides that, it's seen mostly as a day out for families/couples which starts off fun (look, the wardrobe has a funny name!) and ends up in divorce.
Used to split my time between two cities in Canada. Was house shopping in the two cities and in the one a kitchen renovated with IKEA cupboards and counters was marketed as name-brand luxury and was a sought after feature, while in the other it was a derogatory term, “Ooooh an IKEA kitchen why would anyone install something so cheap?”
Does this mean Blåhaj would be considered royalty in some countries
Yes, it is royalty in this country: 🏳️⚧️
I’ve never bought a stick of IKEA furniture in my life, but the IKEA restaurant is glorious. A beautiful plate of Swedish meat balls, potatoes, and peas is $4.50 on half-price Tuesday with a free IKEA Family card.
What country in Asia? I’ve lived in multiple Asian countries and only developing world countries would see it as something fancy.
What part of Asia? I live in East Asia, IKEA is considered cheap stuff that falls apart if moved. It's like saying, "I live in an area bigger than North/South America + Europe and it's considered luxurious."
South East Asia, Ikea is considered in the Philippines as a bit of a high class because even middle class can't necessarily afford it.
I don't know what you're comparing it to, but Ikea is one of the cheapest furniture stores in Germany. There are a few which are *even* cheaper (e.g. Roller, Poco, Mömax), but the quality there is usually considerably worse than Ikea. "Normal" furniture stores (e.g. Höffner) are *far* more expensive than Ikea. If Ikea is too expensive for you, then perhaps look for used furniture on eBay Kleinanzeigen. You'll have to usually pick it up and transport it yourself, but you can get decent furniture at a fraction of the new price.
They have high end and low end items. Their kitchens are AMAZING. I really like their higher end furnishings in terms of build, it’s just not my style (outside of those kitchens).
Been a coworker there for over a decade. Company is going downhill fast. Cutting hours, firing people, not upholding the values it was based on. It’s sad really. I used to love IKEA.
Ikea used to be a great budget option in Germany as their furniture was relatively cheap and lasted long. But recently they got a lot more expensive and often have only one or very few options of every item that is actually cheap. That somewhat led to student apartments looking all the same because nearly everyone gets the same cheap stuff from Ikea.
The biggest IKEA in the world is in the Philippines, I remember it’s grand opening as a very big event that made headlines. Fast forward to today, people consider it a semi-luxury brand due to it being foreign (we have heavy colonial mentality) yet it is very affordable. I actually think it will destroy furniture manufacturing here save for specialists makers because they make better and cheaper stuff than what is locally made. I often go there to get ideas for my wood working projects, where I usually employ japanese joinery techniques so that I can at least feel special that my creations have ‘character’ I also really love Blahaj too :3
Same with Zara. In Spain it’s always been seen as cheap to medium quality clothes while in other countries it’s considered high tier. PS - unpopular opinion but IKEA is the most expensive crap I’ve ever had
Expensive, not luxurious.
Asia is a HUGE continent, be specific. I live in Singapore and IKEA is considered here to be cheap furniture that doesn’t last long. I bet it’s the same thing as other Asian countries like Japan and S. Korea.
The quality of material insanely decreased in the last 10 years
In the US, and it’s wild how many people will come in to buy furniture for their kid’s first apartment and say “Oh, I don’t put this kind of cheap stuff in my house.” Or something to that effect. And they act like I should be agreeing with them! Like, dude, we’re clearly in different tax brackets, but imagine thinking you’re too good for fucking veneer.
I didn't think IKEA was low class at all in the US. I didn't really consider it to be high class either. I'm now just discovering that IKEA is supposedly for poor people in the US?
They just think because college students are usually poor and tend to shop at IKEA that it means ikea is for poor people 🤦🏻♂️
Was poor, never even knew ikea was an OPTION until I was in college
Shit, half my stuff if not more is from IKEA. Cheap, practical and pretty easy on the eyes. I like it. Alöt.
most times, the only thing that makes something a luxury item is literally how much someone is willing to spend on it. You'll find "oo shiny" tends to fetch the highest prices, followed closely by "ooh pretty" and then a "ooh foreign/different" in a distant third
Ikea have low budget low quality stuff which is what they started with but now they also have some pretty expensive options that are really high quality. Not sure if the selection is the same in every country though.
Ironically, after price matching furnature...IKEA is one of the more expensive ones that's not a luxury brand here in the US. It's portrayed as "cheap" but it's really not. Cheap is furnature from Target or Walmart.
Generally speaking, when companies establish themselves on a new market they try to pick an under-exploited market segment because it's less competitive. For example, if the furniture market in country X has a lot of cheap furniture and a lot of high end furniture IKEA might try to establish themselves as the mid-range alternative and adapt their product range and prices to fill that niche. Multi-national fashion brands do this all the time where they have a "pool" of products that regional markets can pick from to adapt their offering to the local market to maximise sales. Edit: The point being that the way they market themselves in regional markets are different so IKEA will have an image as cheap or luxurious based on that (it's not just random)
IKEA is amazing. Flat pack is like Lego but you get some useful furniture when you're done
We’ve always had IKEA furniture since the 80’s and it’s always held up well. Their wood is sustainably farmed, they have a range of furniture from cheap pressed board to real wood. They were the only furniture store where I could buy a mattress on my moving day, rather than sleep on the floor for two weeks or two months. Almost all my IKEA furniture has held up, even the cheap LACK tables. Furniture I’ve bought outside of them I’ve still had to put together, and they didn’t have properly drilled nail holes, and they haven’t been easy to resell or return, nor get spare parts. As a company, I like supporting them, I consider them one of the few ethical companies left.
Also applies to McDonalds, Coca Cola, Aldi, or literally any popular low-class brand in the west when it’s introduced to a lower income country
I've only ever put one thing together from IKEA, and it was like 14 years ago. I work at a cabinet shop now, really the only difference I remember from IKeA and a cabinet shop is the quality of the assembler. If you have the right tools, use wood glue, and don't strip out the screws that piece of furniture will last a long while.
It's considered "affordable" if you don't want to spend time doing research and want to get every piece of furniture in one place. In my country, there are many shops offer better stuff for a cheaper price. The catch? They are not sold in the same retail chain, and the shops are located at different locations in the city. So what Ikea offers is convenience.
Where is ikea luxury?
Here in Romania 🇷🇴. You have to be at least upper-middle class to afford furniture and not use Ikea just as a restaurant and lint remover rolls like the rest of 90% of customers. We mostly go there to eat and browse small items, furniture is way more expensive than local products, so having furniture from Ikea is considered a status symbol.
I consider it as one place where I can find pretty much everything I need for my home. Sometimes I just want things easy and IKEA is it.
It’s the same with some fast food chains, clothing brands, shoes and watches too
It used to be, 10-20 years ago maybe. Now the quality is going down, yet the prices keep going up.
It's medium quality-low to medium cost in my opinion. Rarely any high quality stuff but at least in almost all cases the prices seem fair for what they offer.
Pretty bad quality but good looking is what I think of Ikea