I think it's interesting that IKEA has managed to brand itself into being an event - "Let's go to IKEA". New stores open regularly and people who don't even need furniture spend 45 minutes circling the parking lot looking for a spot. Amazing.

My wife an I moved into an apartment at the beginning of this year, and along with a couple of the Billy bookshelves we'd already purchased before moving (who doesn't have one or two of these, anyway? ), we've gotten a couple of the Poang chairs, some office paper organizers, and a nice amount of kitchenware. I'm actually impressed with the initial quality of the knives for the price, though I fully expect them to wear out quickly. It's still worth it for me. We're young and still building up our stash o' stuff in the apartment. And we're going back in the near future to get a dresser, a taller bookcase, doors for our bookcases, and possibly a kitchen table.

I can't imagine the additional costs involved when we buy a house, and have to buy *nice* things to replace stuff we've bought on the cheap already. I don't want to be in debt up to my eyeballs!

Anyway, you have to know what you like and need to shop at Ikea. They have a huge range of stuff at different qualities. I imagine if you were to do a nice kitchen remodel, you could buy 80% of the stuff you need at Ikea, and it wouldn't necessarily be cheap. I don't like a lot of their furniture (namely chairs/couches) and couldn't find a desk to suit me at all. A lot of their stuff is cheap and belongs in a college dorm. Just weed that out of your choices.

When you shop there, just remember the displays are just for browsing. Take the paper and pencil they offer all over the store and write down the bins and aisles of what you like, and you should be able to find things just fine. The stores I've visted (Woodbridge, VA and College Park, MD) also have people working in the warehouse at computer desks just to help you find stuff (or if you want to wait a few minutes, they can have people reserve/grab it and you can pick it up after paying for it). No big deal.[/i]

I'm not in love with Ikea, but the products are inexpensive. If you haven't bought your lifelong home yet, do you really want to spend $3000 on a sofa or $1000 on a desk? No. You want stuff that won't make you sick when you have to sell it or give it away in five years.

Also, sometimes, Ikea has great small space solutions. Their displays give you ideas, too. I recently bought some kitchen shelving units that have things you can attach. I have not seen these elsewhere for any sort of similar price.

Yep. I got some shelves there that were almost exactly what I'd seen at pottery barn. the ones at pottery barn were $175 for 2 the Ikea ones were $15 each. You can barely tell the difference from a distance.

I find that you definitely get what you pay for, but at least at Ikea I don't find you get overcharged for anything. I find you can go to some other retailers and pay lots of money and it's STILL poorly made. At Ikea, you can pay relatively low costs and get something functional. It won't look great in five years, but at least you should have got some use out of it. Where else can you go to find cheap, functional furniture that's not used?

If you want REALLY cheap Ikea furniture, buy it used from someone else. I find there's quite a significant market of used Ikea goods on the garage sale and craigslist circuits.

My big beef with Ikea? No gift registry!

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My favourite item from Ikea: door bumpers!!! These little wonders turn noisy cheaply made cupboards into soft-closing beauties. I've bought four packs of these things so far and there's still more cupboards to go.

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It's trickle up in terms of popularity. It's great furniture for college kids, then they started making a little bit more appealing stuff. Only recently they've gone into workplace and office furniture. Now that I'm out of college, it's still a dependable place to go for cheap furniture.

In our house, all of the kitchen cabinets are IKEA, and we think they're peachy. We've got bookcases, media shelves and desks that came from IKEA as well as an end table, an entertainment center, our bed and a dresser, aside from little stuff and shelves around the house.

IKEA's a safe bet most of the time, and as long as you take care of the stuff during a move, it can last. During our last move, we moved all of our IKEA furniture successfully. We just like ability to have something that looks nice and didn't cost us our savings to purchase. Plus, it's easier to give away at the end of the day because it's IKEA furniture.

Something is to be said for having furniture that will last forever though. None of the IKEA stuff we've purchased will last 20 or 30 years, but most of it will serve its purpose until the time comes for better furniture.

I have several pieces of furniture from Ikea - they fit my small space, and serve their purpose as inexpensive furniture. When I pay less than $100 for a TV stand, I don't expect it to last 20 years. I like the looks of the things I bought, I didn't have to pay much for them, and I won't feel ripped off if I wind up selling them at a garage sale for $10. I have a small house, and I appreciate the "apartment-sized" pieces that are available to me. I especially like my kitchen table, which seats four, or will swivel and fold to seat two (and take up half the space) It's a wonderful space saver.

Stores? Of course they're crowded, and huge. But in wandering around their displays once I found an "apartment" set up with a real TV playing a DVD, sat on the couch with my bottled water, watched "The Incredibles" for about 20 minutes, chilled out, recharged, and then kept shopping. Kind of nice, really.

I've never had a problem assembling the furniture, and don't consider any of the things I bought to be flimsy. They've held up quite well.

I'm in the market for a new couch, and Ikea is one of the places I'll look first.

I, for one, like Ikea food. I find their prices reasonable for food that is healthy.

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