IKEA furniture

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robert.saunders

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Just spent most of the evening building (constructing?) IKEA furniture - it doesn't seem as good as it used to be :rolleyes:

Seems like MFI of old.....

Maybe it just wasn't that good in the first place :confused:

And now I'm tired. And grumpy :mad:

Still, at least it's better than watching Jamie Oliver discuss battery chickens
 
I bought a flat pack wardrobe once, it said self assembly on the box. I opened it but nothing happened!;)
 
My only recent experience with Ikea Furniture is the kitchen I bought for our French house.

I am seriously impressed with the quality and the strength. So many times, joints set into chipboard are one-use only, but Ikea seem to have got it right.

Also, in France, it's Euro for £, so the units I priced up in England at around £800 only cost me €800 :D

That reminds me: because of the prices, we bought some chests of drawers for our UK home when we were there, and they're a decent weight and quality too.

Only problem is, in France the nearest Ikea is in Bordeaux, which makes it a good 2.5 - 3 hours away, whereas in England we've got 2 within an hour, and another just opened within a few miles.

PJ

I sound like an advert :eek: :crazy:
 
Maybe these units aren't great that I got; previous stuff admittedly has been pretty good.

What did annoy me is that I ordered this online last Thursday, and it took a week to deliver - considering they have a HUGE distribution centre in Peterborough that was a trifle irritating - I could have collected myself, it's only 2 miles from work!
 
Still, at least it's better than watching Jamie Oliver discuss battery chickens

Ooohhh. Put me off eating eggs - seeing the poor male chickens gassed. Most offputting, and I'm a :devil: when it comes to cooking a poached egg!
 
Mind you, I'm thinking of taking up ping pong, because it seems you can do that even though you're fat
 
We've bought a fair bit of Ikea stuff in the last 12 months ... no problems at all. Never used the delivery service though.

Actually that reminds me of a funny trip to Ikea last year. We'd hired a van to move some furniture, had a bit of spare time at the end of the day so decided on a last-minute trip to Ikea for some bulky items. It took longer than planned, so I had to drive quite "briskly" to try and get the van back on time. Unfortunately it had a faulty brake force distribution valve, which meant that under anything other than the lightest braking the rear wheels would lock up with an almighty screech of rubber on tarmac :eek:

An entertaining hour's drive :D
 
For the cost of Ikea furntiture compared to "proper furniture" I am mostly left impressed and happy to buy it. On the scale of choice and availability nothing compares or competes in the slightest.

MFI dont even have their flat pack sections any more, it's all Kitchens and Bathrooms to order.
 
I find with IKEA you have to select carefully, but there is no doubt, their good stuff is very good, build quality can be excellent, difficult to beat on choice and price. The great advantage is that if you get fed up with it after a couple of years you can just sling it, it so cheap. That said my kitchen wasn't that cheap, but much much better than others I looked at, even some at the so called high end!
 
We vowed never to go there ever again after a marathon 4 hour kitchen purchase...

However, it is simply such good value - we bought some shelves from Habitat and they aren't much better, stuff in Heals is mostly flimsy and not very well designed.

To get into a different league of quality you need to spend at least 3 times the money.

Ade
 
We had some big items from Ikea ... double bed and bunk bed for the kids. Being flat pack originally meant when we moved house we managed with a relatively small self-hire van (since they could easily be dismantled and put back together again).
 
We vowed never to go there ever again after a marathon 4 hour kitchen purchase...

However, it is simply such good value - we bought some shelves from Habitat and they aren't much better, stuff in Heals is mostly flimsy and not very well designed.

To get into a different league of quality you need to spend at least 3 times the money.

Ade

iirc IKEA bought Shabitat some time ago...could be wrong ....gave up on them years ago. With Heals it very much depends on what you buy.

Try ILVA.
 
I bought an Ikea kitchen table to use as a desk. £23! That's less than a round of drinks.

Hate visiting the place though. Might have to look into the delivery service.

Hope you've recovered from the assembling Robert, all that screwing can leave you with an aching wrist. :)
 
iirc IKEA bought Shabitat some time ago...could be wrong ....gave up on them years ago. With Heals it very much depends on what you buy.

Try ILVA.

We specify quality stuff for our 'considerably richer than us' clients, the difference between the high street and places like Aram and SCP is quite a hike.

Our office is kitted out with IKEA Arne Jacobsen clone stuff and looks ok and the quality is fine.

We had to start from scratch in our new flat - we decided that rather than sit on boxes and look at boxes, we'd kit it out as cheap as we could and then ditch the cheap stuff as we found things we liked.

Having assembled numerous drawers, a bed, a wardrobe, a kitchen, desks, shelves etc. etc. I can only be impressed, and IKEA stuff is actually a pretty good product for the money - out of all the stuff the only problem we had was a screw was missing from the bed (found one in the tool box to fit).

Hardly surprising they are everywhere, and dare I say it, the design of some of the stuff is quite nice given its flat pack and cheap as chips.

Ade
 
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I have bought a fair bit from IKEA previously, this stuff was low-end for a store room but I guess I got what I paid for.

Certainly agree, their more 'expensive' stuff is way better!

As far as regular furniture goes, I tend to buy ad-hoc pre-assembled stuff from local specialists (for lounge, dining etc).

I like IKEA for bedroom furniture though, but not beds strangely enough.

I do like their marketplace though, great gadgets and bits N bobs, I bet every room at home as something from IKEA in it
 

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