Because that 2 lifetimes table doesnt cost $800 thats what grandma paid for it in the 50s when buying a 4 bedroom house for $30,000 and working at the mill for 50 years was normal.
It also weighs 3 tons and given that you live in a shitty 1 bedroom apartment and have to move every 6 months to an even smaller shoebox that costs an increasing % of your income every damn time, Its probably for the best that your shit is disposable.
Everyone should get into woodworking, because then you can just make your own and it’ll be twice as expensive and shittier than IKEA’s version.
Have you seen the price of finished wood these days. It’ll probably be cheaper (although possibly more fatal) to buy a forest, cut your own trees down and build your own sawmill.
Most of which aren’t really compatible with living in a city, even if you’re in a house and not an apartment. We needed an entire garage stall for my husband’s tools, which significantly affected what houses we could buy and how close to the city center we could live. It’s a lifestyle choice, not something you just pick up on a whim.
I moved out of our house and if I wanted some furniture and beds for the kids do I spend $450 total for all 3 of us to have a bed or do I spend $2k when I’m trying to get shit settled down?
And yes, to your point, I’ve moved twice since then and that would have been a nightmare. And 5 years later the bed still is fine
All IKEA furniture I’ve bought has lasted a long time, but the meme is wrong, the reason it even exists is you can’t buy better quality furniture for the same price, at least not by very much, it will cost a lot more if you want amazing quality.
Agreed, yet to find any ikea (or any non-ikea being fair) fail to hold whatever items i put into them… Sounds like you (OP, not person i am replying to), might ve storing something strange in them to fail often enough to complain about ALL ikea furniture…
Flat pack furniture traditionally had the relationship for being crap, in particular for missing pieces like a screw here or there, but when Ikea came along they did things properly. That was the reason they got so popular, they were so much better than the competition, and they forced others to up their game. I think they were the first to actually include extra screws, to cover the occassions when they weren’t there, but these days their quality assurance is so good they just include the exact right amount every time.
They also have a little depot that you can go to to get extra screws and bits of wooden dowel and stuff.
You can go in tell them you need a type 4 screw from set 10.34.82.14 and they go oh yes that’s a Peürïng, and give you it.
Keyword there is “find”
If your hobby is trawling second hand and antique stores, yard sales, estate sales and online classifieds looking for just the perfect high quality but affordable end tables that match your decor. Then go on with your bad self, I bet your house looks sweet.
I can go onto the Ikea website, find some cabinets that will do the job, I can check the measurements, pick my color, click a few buttons and they arrive at my house in a few days.
I bought most of my furniture used and got some really good pieces at great prices.
After a certain point though, I’m fed up of spending ages searching online and having to instantly jump on good deals. And if you’re not careful, you also end up with a load of random furniture that doesn’t fit together.
Depending on the item, it’s quite literally not worth my time searching for a good used piece. As in, if I was charging an hourly wage for searching/collecting, overall I’d be net negative.
Yep. I’ve found high quality old furniture at estate sales, but it’s never matched my decor.
I’m not gonna complain about paying $50 for a couch made back in the 1960s that still feels brand new, though. Even if it’s dark purple.
If you can find 2nd hand stuff that you like for cheap then go nuts.
I’ve got a garage full of 2nd hand stuff that I can’t even give away on FB marketplace because nobody likes the look of it.
IKEA has never been poor quality. It serves its purpose in the market and people seem to like the designs.
I’ve found that this is the problem. The good quality stuff is great and yes it will last multiple generations. However the styling will be long out of date before even the end of the first generation. My parents had old extremely well made furniture that they spent a lot of money in when they first got married. 30 years later the styling was out of date, my mom wanted a change, and they practically couldn’t even give the furniture away because nobody wanted the old style. So now my dad has a guest room in the basement using that furniture.
If you’re adamant about that, then I guess this largely depends on where you live. Outside of one lucky find in a furniture charity shop I haven’t had that luxury, not to mention that you don’t get to choose what furniture you’re getting there.
I see you are in Germany, like myself, I tried other options momax, XXLutz and some others with very bad results. Yes, there are other more local brands but they are considerably expensive in comparison. Ikea has provided reliable and compact furniture, easy to move when changing apartments. Most of the second hand furniture I find is actually Ikea stuff in decent condition. I’m open to trying again with other brands and will do but my experience with Ikea has not been bad as described by the meme
But that is just my opinion.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, maybe it’s because you keep replying second-hand without giving more information on that? Where are you looking? How are you finding it?
Yeah… about that.
This is representative of what I find when I look for anything second hand: https://lansing.craigslist.org/fuo/d/alma-beautiful-barn-wood-accent-table/7646902627.html
Note that this is about an hour drive each way.
It absolutely does not cost the same price as the properly made alternative. Noooo way.
Flat pack stuff like that is way, way cheaper, thus why people buy it.
Also, you can bring home a full armoire in a hatchback. Real wood furniture is large and heavy, and requires specialized equipment to get it up to an apartment.
Having antique furniture is like owning an upright piano. It probably has sentimental value, and will outlive humanity with minimal maintenance, but not everyone has the space for it, and when it comes time to relocate it, you realize why furniture went flatpack.
Real talk, I fit an Ikea mattress, slats, bedframe, and a weeks’ worth of groceries in my Ford Focus hatch when I was moving into an apartment in college. Meanwhile I had to rent a U-Haul for the 60 year old dresser passed down from my parents, because it wouldn’t fit in my car or either of their SUVs.
I make and restore wood furniture. I have taken plenty of “all wood” furniture apart, repaired it, or just salvaged whatever actual wood scraps I could find.
Whatever idiot wrote this has no idea how expensive true wood furniture is. There is hardly ANY actual wood furniture in the market, PERIOD. You think it’s wood, but it’s veneered ply or fiberboard. That is the state of the entire industry, not just IKEA. This is a simple fact of life in a world that has already been heavily deforested even before all 8 BILLION PEOPLE currently living were born. Wood is precious. You also don’t need solid wood for your fucking nightstand. So maybe you should buy a nightstand made out of the particleboard that is waste product from milling lumber for other uses, like construction. That’s called using everything, wasting nothing. It’s sustainable.
There is nothing wrong with IKEA furniture for most people’s everyday needs. And you are not going to get a 150-year all wood piece for the same price. LOL fuck no. When you are in your 40s and have made it big time you can go to a craft furniture maker and get a solid oak bedroom set. It will cost more than your first car did.
IKEA furniture does not fall apart in 3 years, either. I’m about to go get my pajamas out of the IKEA dresser I’ve had since 2001. It won’t last centuries like a real craftsman made wood dresser. But it’s not 3 year garbage either, and looks and works like the day I bought it, despite me using it daily for 22 years and moving it between at least 4 houses in that time.
IKEA furniture is good for what it is and very cheap. One of the reasons it’s cheap is that it is flat packed for efficient shipping. Assembly by the customer also saves cost. And seriously, if you can’t figure out the IKEA instructions, you must not be trying very hard.
And seriously, if you can’t figure out the IKEA instructions, you must not be trying very hard.
You missed the part where the same idiot posting stupid misunderstandings about the furniture market is the one trying to assemble the furniture. They’re working their ass off trying to assemble that nightstand, but it’s too damn complicated. Just opening the box took years off their life.
OP has clearly never priced out solid wood furniture. A single mission-style sofa–by which I mean something made using Gustav Stickley’s plans–will typically retail for well over $3000 US. …Such as this version–from the original Stickley company–that has an MSRP of >$9000
OPs whole shit is wrong, honestly. I have a house furnished on quite a lot of Ikea shit that’s been going strong for 10ish years through multiple moves? Though I don’t disagree that I’d rather have better materials like real wood that can be refinished and really can last a century, that is not happening for anywhere near Ikea prices.
That’s what I was thinking too. Like, where can I get a nice, sturdy couch for under $800 USD?