IKEA: classic or dud?

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.

the big shelf almost did me in last nite, Jaq. but i was drunk and tired. and maria did most of the work. but i was bleeding. and i banged the rest of it together this morning and i wasn't subtle. so it's not perfect. the two little ones were no problem though. again, maria did them by herself mostly. we still have one big one and one smaller one left to do. i'm scared of the remaining monster shelf. we put one little one on top of another little one. they look nice. or will once we get all the moving detritus out of the house. the other shelves will just be for books. and we are still gonna need more shelves! but most of everything will be out of boxes. which is nice.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2177/1564484515_e6d2ffef22.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/1564484353_04181c21fb.jpg?v=0

it's a relief mostly. i've had stuff in boxes for five years. since we moved to the island. even the boxes themselves are kind of nostalgic for me! they came from last job in philly at the korean deli.

http://wotan.liu.edu/~kimberlytiffany/bowing.jpg xpost

my parents are bringing me an expedeit for my bday :D

and oh yeah the ikea in massachusetts was insane. but insane in a good way. like it's own country. or it's own airport or something. we were in a hurry, otherwise we probably would have dropped a lot more dough there.

maria found these nice shelves at an estate sale. same place we got our almost new couch. they are in my upstairs "office".

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2300/1564574285_a061378559.jpg?v=0

and she just got me a nice recliner at another estate sale for ten bucks. every office needs a good recliner.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2281/1564574193_5c736701e5.jpg?v=0

there are still records in the closet, but at least they are out of the boxes.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2134/1565456024_cb4b0ec065.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2121/1564574483_aa6c63f7d7.jpg?v=0

IKEA is useful. Especially with those of use with micro apartments. Rundown of what is in my apartment currently:

Folding leaf table and pantry:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/306888020_9f5c3786e5.jpg

Table close-up:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/118/306890751_b1da79e002.jpg

The shelf of the left. The cabinets were there when we moved it, but they might be IKEA for all I know:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/99/306883931_e57dd05daa.jpg

Office desk:

Also have the coffee table with storage baskets, and another shelf in the living room.

Office desk:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/114/306891355_d812ff5682.jpg

were the cats from ikea too?

Ikea is pretty classic just for lighting alone. After spending the weekend checking out random fancy-pants furniture and light shops while roaming around Portland I came to realize how great Ikea lights are.

Both the bedside lamps in my bedroom, one living room floor lamp, one table lamp, and four of the ceiling lights in my kitchen, hallway, dining room, and living room are all from Ikea for a total cost of maybe $250 or so. I could easily have spent twice that on one table lamp at a place like Lux in Portland. Even at Home Depot ceiling lights run at least $50. And I actually like the Ikea lights.

I guess I can't comprehend spending $700 on a single lamp, or $3500 on a coffee table (though if I ever win the lottery I'm totally buying two Eames chairs) when I can something that I still think looks pretty good for so much cheaper.

There are a bunch of cut-rate furniture stores full of odd asian stuff in SF that totally rule over IKEA. Hell, even Cost Plus World Market >>> IKEA.

i have some stuff from them, my bed is the biggest thing, which i really like. and it wasn't hard at all to put together wtf!

i'm leery of having too much ikea in my place, tbh

scott may i ask how you file your records? chron? bpm? alphabet? genre? random?

It was classic the othe evening for about seven minutes, I'd chosen a fairly decent drawing table. Then as we got to the aisles all the bits had sold out, which wasn't stated on the tags. It was dud then until we had lunch there and the fish was amazing.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=6919139

I'm about to furnish like half of my tiny new apartment with Ikea - there's just nothing else as cheap and space-efficient that still looks half ok, even if a lot of it is particle board. Most likely will put in a 5x5 Expedit shelf with the desk that attaches (it's big and only $50 extra)

Attaches like so:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/uimages/ny/5-16-expedit-new-3.jpg

but I intend to make a corner piece out of it so that the desk is coming out of the end instead of the center.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ndrobinson/Misc/photo?authkey=jxUJ-wIwE9s#5234926144735517570

^^ A Tullsta ($99 upholstered chair) duct-taped, bungie-corded and tied to my 1993 Saturn after a visit to the Sacramento store (I live in the San Joaquin Valley now, no longer a vermonter).

I still think it's amazing that they come up with names for EVERY product in the store considering how many old ones they retire and new ones they introduce. I mean every fucking flower pot, hook, shelf, dish, trash can etc. has a name.

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t309/ndrobinson/221654758405_0_1.jpg

oops!

That's a great looking chair

http://www.ikea.com/PIAimages/19431_PE104724_S3.jpg

A nice enough chair. They buried the legs underneath the cushion, and it took me a day to find them. When I first sat on the tiny, legless chair (it came up to my knees), I sat uncomfortably and then rationalized it by thinking Swedes are just shorter and anyway maybe this is the style now. Eventually I found the legs and felt a wave of relief.