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Has anyone bought furniture from Ikea? How did it hold up?

4K views 26 replies 27 participants last post by  Libby 
#1 ·
I'm in need of furniture for my apartment and a friend told me to check out Ikea. I'm kind of worried about the quality, but I do like the modern/ contemporary designs they have.
 
#2 ·
Ikea holds up fine, but you won't furnish your apt. for $1000 there.
 
#3 ·
particle board junk.

be selective in what you pick out. i had better luck with real oak furniture at those unfinished furniture places.
 
#5 ·
Depending on what you are looking for and what the use will be Ikea can be ok. I have some cd towers that don't get moved, that look nice and I like them. I also have some night stands and dresser drawers that get moved frequently and they are not holding up as well.

I love the solid wood shelving units/frames that you can assemble and build on. They are very utilitarian for us in our computer room and basement storage. They assemble/disassemble very easily when we need to move them.

I would vote for solid wood furniture from Craigslist for furnishing your apartment.
 
#6 ·
Anything made of particle board will fall apart. The wood utility shelving is good, the particle board shelves will start to bow. Anything with a dark finish will chip and scratch.

We bought a kitchen cabinet from them which is very solid (stand alone counter with drawers), and I have the unfinished pine shelves which require a lot of anchoring to stop the unit from wobbling but the actual shelves are strong.

Any of the particle board cabinets, dressers and shelving that you have to assemble into a unit get damaged quite easily, particularly during assembly if you are not the world's most patient person. These things look good in the showroom but are not.

They do have great deals on glassware, dishes, lamps, kitchen accessories, etc.
 
#9 ·
I just asked dd about this and she said that many of the college kids at CMU go to Ann Arbor and buy furniture there for apartments. She said it is not the greatest quality and that she recommends checking garage sales, estate sales, and the newspaper classifieds for sturdy furniture.
 
#10 ·
DH and I have dressers from Ikea. He has to fix them once in a while, but they've survived three moves, so I'm not complaining. My MIL has a really nice daybed from Ikea, it has drawers underneath and a trundle that pulls out making it into a queen bed, I think.

The furniture won't last you forever, that's for sure. But if you take good care of it, and you like the way it looks, you'll be fine. :)
 
#12 ·
We have lots of stuff from Ikea. It isn't going to last us a lifetime, but we knew that when we bought it. Everything is pretty inexpensive and has served us well for the last few years.
 
#13 ·
Yeah, that!

I have Magiker bookcase (no longer made) that is about 7 years old. It looks as good as it did on the day we got it and it has survived two moves. We have an Expedit bookcase that we use as a dresser (takes up less space) and it's been moved around our house a few times--still looking good. In fact, we are going to Ikea sometime next month to buy two more Expedit bookcases for our kids rooms. We also have a flimsy plastic hamper that was $2--it also is 7 years old and has transported hundreds of pounds of laundry to the basement for yeras.

Like others have said, not all of their stuff is great quality. I find the more popular pieces (like the Expedit) are among the best. The best thing to do is to go to the store and look at everything, open the drawers etc to get a feel for the quality. You will definitely notice a difference. I'm an Ikea ho so I'm a little biased towards their stuff!
 
#14 ·
I love our IKEA stuff. Nope, it's not "forever-furniture", but it holds up great and I don;t have a cow when it gets dinged up like I do when something happens to my good, expensive furniture.
 
#16 ·
We only buy solid wood from IKEA. When we were married 28 years ago we bought a living room sofa, love seat and chair, and a table. All are still in use...except the sofa. We had no room for it in this house and actually cut it down into lawn furniture. It was okay until the 75' tree fell on it and smashed it. Anyhooo.... Yeah, IKEA is okay. I need to refinish the pine table after 28 years. And I've recovered the cushions on the love seat and chair. And I also replaced the plastic/tarp like support for the cushions with decent canvas. But I mean, come on, it's been 28 years!!!

Jean
 
#17 ·
We have 2 book cases, a wardrobe and a computer desk from IKEA. All are wood and purchased during their sales. Great deals, had them for years, still like new condition. We also have curtains, dishes,cookware, and loads of other things. I'm quite happy with the things we purchased. We made sure to look for their quality items though, I think that is key. I think if you go for the cheapest stuff at IKEA that is exactly what you get, however like I said we only shop IKEA sales and find that on sale their good stuff is the same price or less than their cheap stuff.
 
#18 ·
I did my kitchen over... and yes, I used Ikea for the cabinets. I would have loved to buy solid oak cabinetry... but, I didn't have $20K :lol: I did however, buy a better quality counter top than what Ikea offered.

Some of the furniture there is pretty solid and worth the money... some aren't. Same can be said of items at the 'quality stores'.

I was at Jordans (major furniture store here) and they had a dresser we really liked for $1000. After further investigation, it was nothing more than well dressed press board and the one in the 'display bedroom' was cracked, chipped and broken... and it didn't get the daily wear and tear of normal use.

Would I be ticked off if I bought a $120 dresser from Ikea and it chipped? Yes... but not nearly as much as if I paid $1000 for it.

Some of the sofas are great, again, some not so much. Look for one with a solid frame and not the movable metal.
 
#19 ·
some is good and some isn't great.

if you spend a few extra dollars for the wood furniture there over the particle board stuff you're better off. the particle stuff will fall apart with use.

all our dressers, side tables and playroom stuff is the real wood and has held up very well over the years.

my brother's had his ikea couch for 10 years now and its still in great shpe.
 
#22 ·
We bought a PAX unit from IKEA when we bought our house because our bedroom is SO small. It takes up the only wall that doesn't have windows & it is set up so we use it instead of dressers. We love it so much that we bought one for our daughters room. Both have held up very well.
We have also bought 2 beds there. One of them was an inexpensive metal loft bed with the desk area underneath, the other is a white day bed with a trundle and storage underneath. the loft bed was a bear to put together but it looks great & is perfect for my daughters little room
 
#25 ·
As others have said, you get what you pay for. IKEA does give a guarantee, but only on the items they believe in: our sofa has a 10-yr guarantee, but the sofa that stood next to it, didn't.

Most of the stuff (cupboards) will hold up nicely as long as you don't move it and occasionally retighten the screws. If you do move, make sure you make it into a flat pack again and use glue to put it back together. With the pressed wood boards, the original holes will be too big after you've taken the screws out, to re-accommodate the screws.
 
#26 ·
Have been to Ikea a few times and while the furniture looked good in the store, I wasn't too sure about how good it would hold up. Sounds like not so good....hubby is over here saying "told you so" and "let's stick to real wood" :)
 
#27 ·
I'd say its pretty good furniture - especially if you're just starting out in your apt. Lower in terms of price, quality is decent and it does last.....everything lasts if you take care of it.

So far - my sister's furniture purchased from over 10 yrs ago is still going strong. It's been passed back and forth between us and moved around numerous times. Still looks almost brand new. BF bought his bed, night table and dressers from there - 5+ yrs ago - still looks immaculate. Ikea introduced glass tops for the MALM dresser set - helps protect your investment more!

You do get what you pay for and if you're not patient when you assemble it, you could damage it before you even get to use it. But take care of it and it should last you a good while. And as someone else has stated, if it gets trashed - you'll be sad but won't cry over it from the price you paid for it.
 
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