Ok, I guess the Swedish furniture chain superstore IKEA is way more prevalent in Europe, but it also has some outlets in the US. I am guessing there's one in Chicago.

I would like the official verdict: is it crap or not?

Just to get my two cents out of the way, I'll begin by voting crap, and declaring it the furniture equivalent of McDonald's.

The only way these fukkerz could get away with it is because they're from pure, inoffensive, good old Sweden. There's no way it would work if they were 'Mericans.

So, what is the Electrical judgement

Mazec wrote:Ok, I guess the Swedish furniture chain superstore IKEA is way more prevalent in Europe, but it also has some outlets in the US. I am guessing there's one in Chicago.

I'm pretty sure IKEA is everywhere.

Much better quality than you can get at Target for the same price. Much more interesting than anything Rooms To Go or similar chains may have to offer.

NOT CRAP, even though they are becoming ubiquitous.

IKEA furniture is NOT CRAP.

Being forced by your wife to go to IKEA every fucking weekend is complete and utter CRAP.

edit: amen, brother.


i can't say anything about quality of what they sell, but once i spent a whole day in ikea as a my g/f's porter.. oh how depressing it was. i was going through phaes of wanting to kill her, me, everyone, being bored to death, being frustrated by the the neverending piles of shit i don't care about (why no records stores are this big).. uh. but the food was cheap. if i remeber correctly you could buy one glass of pepsi and fill it up as many times you wish. this rocks, but overall - CRAP.

I think for a few simple, functional pieces (the chair I am sat on and the desk I’m typing this at are from Ikea) it’s just fine although the build quality varies enormously. I always make the mistake of going on a Sunday when the store swells to the population of a medium-sized city and regardless of what I intended on buying I always end up with armfuls of stick on mirrors, candles, kitchen utensils and whatnot from the bric-a-brac zone.

Every wondered about those crazy product names? wonder no more...


Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames

Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian placenames

Dining tables and chairs: Finnish placenames

Bookcase ranges: Occupations

Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays

Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names

Chairs, desks: men’s names

Materials, curtains: women’s names

Garden furniture: Swedish islands

Carpets: Danish placenames

Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, sailors’ language

Bedlinen, bedcovers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones

Children’s items: mammals, birds, adjectives

Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms

Kitchen utensils (cutlery, crockery, textiles, glass, porcelain, tablecloths, candles, serviettes, decorative articles, vases etc.): foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions

Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

Inte Skit!

I really like the desk I bought there (called a "Jerker"). Sturdy and a good price.

NOT CRAP

themajormiller wrote:
Being forced by your wife to go to IKEA every fucking weekend is complete and utter CRAP.

Ok, this is what got be started on the IKEA thing. Only later did it begin to strike me as inappropriate that a country leading the world in suicides become a major marketer of mass-produced furniture and pre-designed happy family fun rooms.

BTW, does anybody know the IKEA ladenkasten story?

i like the ikea stuff, but i fucking hate assembling it. the directions use symbols instead of words, everything is done with little allen wrenches.

there's a furniture store here in Austin called Eurway. I bought a sofa there last week. It is a little more expensive than Ikea and a bit better quality. I don't know how many there are. But it is in keeping with the whole scandanavian-swedish-euro motif. There was a moment that I felt like a total sheep while in the store, it was fairly busy and everyone there was at least semi-hipster, or gen x'er, or whatever. Then there was me, late 30's family man grasping at the last straws of cool. But we were all their market demographic.

It's a love/hate thing for me. Some of the stuff is great REAL stuff, like some of the garden stuff and pottery and lights and some of the frames. I am happy to find things like this that I like the design of and are made with quality.

What I hate is pre-fab crap that is not meant to last... it is apartment furniture and is meant to last until it gets wet and the glued pulp comes undone. I also hate seeing furniture that LOOKS prefab... they sometimes do a good job of hiding it but you can just smell it.

My folks have real, honest to god wood furniture that was made by real people and companied that was passed down from their parents and some from their parents before them. What is wrong with making something that is well made and will last generations? Right...nothing is wrong with that. Nothing at all.

I do lake the grav-lox plate and berry soda, though. It is also a great people-watching place... but don't go on the weekend! That makes me way to close with way too many people and I think I am starting to hate people.