IKEA: classic or dud?

"Henjoy your affordable Svedish Crap!"

http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/30353_PE103235_S3.jpg

It is great, and cost £69.

Habitat do a remarkably similar (although solid wood rather than particleboard) thing for £345.

IKEA won this battle.

The only thing I want from IKEA is a bathroom sink/cupboard unit, but I can't face going to the bloody store.

i... don't understand.

i want one

Although we'll probably be buying a bed there.

Is the stuff hard to put together? I've always gotten otherwise cheap stuff that is already put together, but I see they have some nice, clean-lined red shelving.

It can be frustrating sometimes. Try to have a friend on hand who is somewhat mechanically inclined and enjoys those sorts of projects.

I once got trapped inside the Bristol branch of IKEA.
I can buy already assembled furniture from the Furniture Store (it's actually called that) not far from my house. I can get a solid chest of drawers there for £50. Why would I waste my time assembling furniture when I can buy it already made? Screw that. So, dud.

xpost
No, it isn't hard as long as you really look at the instructions properly and don't try to do something clever like I did and build a loft bed with a ladder in a different direction to the one illustrated. It took me 4 hours. But Child 2 loves it now so Daddy getting all stressed out and hitting the floor with the hammer was all in a good cause.

As I'm sure I've posted elsewhere I have a load of their stuff and most of it has lasted well and still goods good.

The thing about it being flatpacked is that I cannot get a six foot bookcase already assembled in my car. Now for that matter, a bed.

??

why bother doing anything?

think i'm going to purchase some expedit shelves for the records. they really are the perfect size.

-- haitch, Sunday, May 13, 2007 3:06 PM

I cannot get a six foot bookcase already assembled in my car

some of us don't have cars.

idiot furniture stores that don't deliver.

some of us don't have books

IKEA deliver - oh boy do they deliver!

The shelves, dining chairs, and tables aren't too difficult to put together. Mr. Jaq just re-assembled 2 of the 16 cube Expedits the other night and we've got 2 more of the 25 cube ones waiting to build up this weekend. I had some small issues with a chest of drawers, and once I bought an extremely complex and fiddly fold-out laptop desk that took AGES to put together and when it was done, it was unpleasant to use. Hint #1: electric screwdriver or drill w/ screwdriver bit U&K. Hint #2: if the screws don't want to start or bind 1/2 way, back them out and rub either soap or pencil lead on them, then try again.

I have a stigmatum on my hand from assembling my new IKEA table from the new IKEA store here. Stupid screwdriver digging into my palm. I do have a power drill though so I was able to finish the thing. And the table is nice and folds up very small so I have a bigger feeling living room now. Rah!

OK, our living room is now like an IKEA showroom. And EVERY instruction booklet thing that came with everything we bought had one completely wrong diagram in it just to confuse the living bejeezus out of us. But it all looks lovely, even if it did take about three hours to put together a stool.

Okay, those giant size Expedits with 25 cubbies are DAMN HEAVY. We got the second one built last night. I'm trying to figure out how to bolt one (narrow side) to the (brick) wall (without a masonry drill) and then somehow tie the second one to the first one, so they don't fall over and crush me in my sleep (hello earthquake-prone lahar zone paranoid living).

oh yeah, ikea deliver. like when they delivered my bookshelf to the wrong fucking house and then said: "the woman won't give it back."

WELL, GIVE ME ANOTHER ONE, THEN, YOU CUNTS.

as for whether it's hard to assemble or not ... i refer you to my own odyssey, above. it's not, really -- the worst thing about it is the lack of any WORDS on the instructions. you do end up wanting to chop up little speech-bubble man with a sharpened allen key, and there's invariably one step that seems to involve adjusting something that, had you not decided to adjust it two steps previously, would have caused the whole thing to collapse and break your hand, but ... look, if i can do it, you bloody can.

Mary, it's not hard. Like someone said above, you should invest in a cordless power drill. You can get a decent one for under 50 bucks, you don't need anything really powerful.

scott, i think i'm going to order some expedit shelves.

and then said: "the woman won't give it back."

!!!!!

The delivery service they contract with here completely mangled one package of the 6, so I refused it. The guy said "It was like that when they put it on the truck this morning." Yeah, right. Finally got the replacement a week later, also in a mangled box - but this time the shelves weren't destroyed. We are going to buy some Omars pretty soon.

My new most fun thing to do: dropping the empty boxes out our (3rd story) window into the alley below for Mr. Jaq to corral.