Thoughts about Ikea furniture

SWMBO and I are looking for a new sofa and are checking out Ikea and this model specifically. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S99875139/
I have heard both good and bad things about Ikea and their products and warranty.

One thing that stands out is if you have an issue with something you have to take it apart an bring it into the store to have it inspected. I have read some older posts about what a PITA this process is. WE sat on the couch in the store and it is pretty comfortable. We also live in a 100+ year old half duplex so getting a standard couch into the house requires us to bring it in through the window on the side of the house. Any one have any thoughts on this model or their couches in general?

We have two IKEA beds (including the king size in our bedroom), a glass dining table, assorted lamps and some Swedish-funky chairs (my wife is Swedish and we're Scandinavian-proud). We love it, no problems.

We used Ikea to remodel our master bathroom. We also have a king sized bed frame and several book cases from them. So far so good. The only issue we have had is with a particualr cat that can open the drawers on our Ikea bedrame...at 2 oclock in the morning

Thanks for the info.

My daughter has had two beds from IKEA in the past couple of years. Not because of quality issues, but because of space issues. The house we rented when we moved down here had vaulted ceilings and we got her a loft bed that was fantastic. When we bought our current house, the ceilings are not high enough in her bedroom so we had to sell that and buy her a different bed. We have not had any issues with either. We also have several dressers and a couple of Expedit shelving units. Almost all of it was hauled in the back of my Saab wagon!

We've got IKEA couches in our home, no issues in the 5 years we've had them. We did, however, make the mistake of getting cream colored fabric - that ended up getting kinda grungy looking after a few years. The good thing about the IKEA couches is the cover is easily removed, for either washing or replacement.

Regarding getting the couch into your old house with small openings - I seriously doubt you'll have any issues getting the parts and pieces through your doorways. Each couch will be broken down into at least 4 pieces (seat/bottom, back, armrests, cushions), and they're pretty manageable.

longmi01 said:

Each couch will be broken down into at least 4 pieces (seat/bottom, back, armrests, cushions), and they're pretty manageable.

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Pretty sure that is his primary justification for going Ikea instead of 'Sofa Universe' or something

3 things. 1) Everything we have received from Ikea (mostly tables and book shelves) we have been happy with. I also watch the "you feel sorry for za little lamp..." commercial on youtube at least once a year. It gives me a chortle.

2) Pappers, are you familiar with gravlax? I make my own, have some curing in the fridge in fact. I would be interested to see how a true Scandinavian regards my gravlax.

3) wolfstar... that cat shares living space with several large dogs and a few full on wolf-dogs... I gotta imagine that that is one badass kitty.

I had a lot of ikea stuff in my first apartment. Still use the bookcase. It's fine. Held up reasonably well. Held up very well for the price. It's not the nicest stuff but it's not trash either.

My wife and I have bought a lot of stuff from Ikea because it is much cheaper than any other furniture store. We try to buy everything in solid wood if possible. What they have is usually soft pine but will hold up better than laminate.

i have that exact couch. i was in a similar situation where i couldn't fit a couch into my basement. i have had it for about 18 months now and it looks great. it is wearing much better than my friend's lazy boy that cost three times as much.

consider the covers - i probably should have gone for washable. our toddler has required me to take the covers to get dry cleaned once or twice.

if you don't live near the store, it is critical that you take out the bag that includes all the nuts and bolts and cross-reference the manual to make sure you have everything. ikea never gives extra bolts and often forgets one or two. they give you more at customer service, but it has to be in person, iirc. so please, please, don't leave the store until you've verified your sofa includes all the parts.

you won't regret it, it is a nice couch. doesn't take long to put together either.

I have an Ikea office set and I love it. Cheap, functional and looks pretty good. I had a few other items from them over the years and I've been happy with them all for the price.

CreamyGoodness said:

Pappers, are you familiar with gravlax? I make my own, have some curing in the fridge in fact. I would be interested to see how a true Scandinavian regards my gravlax.

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I love gravlax and cured salmon of any kind. But, I'm only Scandinavian by marriage so can't claim any special expertise Its cured in salt, sugar and dill, correct?

The best fish I've had in Sweden was fresh whole herrings sprinkled with salt and cooked in the ovens at a glass works factory. Although the immense variety of pickled herring in Sweden is outstanding too. Curried herring is unbelieveably yummy.

Hmmm. "Gravlax" never heard of it. I will have to check it out.

+HopSpunge+ said:

Hmmm. "Gravlax" never heard of it. I will have to check it out.

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Its the Swedish version of lox, I suppose. Raw salmon cured with (I think) salt, sugar and dill. Served on crackers, with capers, dill and cream cheese, its delicious.

CreamyGoodness said:

3 things. 1) Everything we have received from Ikea (mostly tables and book shelves) we have been happy with. I also watch the "you feel sorry for za little lamp..." commercial on youtube at least once a year. It gives me a chortle.

2) Pappers, are you familiar with gravlax? I make my own, have some curing in the fridge in fact. I would be interested to see how a true Scandinavian regards my gravlax.

3) wolfstar... that cat shares living space with several large dogs and a few full on wolf-dogs... I gotta imagine that that is one badass kitty.

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We have 3 FIV positive kitties that we took in from local shelters (they were to be euthanised).. The kitties get our master bedroom, and we built a fully enclosed outdoor patio complete with a pine log jungle jim for them accessed through a window mouned kittie door... Kitties and wolfypoos are seperated

It's cheap crap. The wife loves it, I can't stand it. We have one piece of furniture from Ikea that I don't hate and that's the TV stand. Anything else with 4 legs wobbles like crazy.

Besides, the majority of that stuff is all particle board anyway.

IKEA has been a part of my home ever since I started living on my own, well even before that, there were a few IKEA things in my mom's home. I live in Sweden and IKEA permeates the Swedish homes to an extent that you wouldn't believe. It's cheap (or maybe I should say "inexpensive"), well designed and reasonably durable.
Some of the cheaper stuff is definitely wibbly-wobbly and the instructions say to re-draw all screws after a while... Particle board (MDF) makes up a lot of the shelves, doors etc, but some stuff is solid wood. You get what you pay for, but IMHO you get a lot for your money at IKEA if you pick the cherries so to speak. I got loads of IKEA stuff at home, to the point that I am really hesitant to buy any more furniture from there, making my home look like one of their catalogues.

IKEA has been critizised for a number of things in Sweden, from the founder being a member of the Nazi party in his youth (which he has confessed to), to the recent idea of erasing all women from the catalogue in the Saudi edition, so many Swedes opt out because of these issues or others (of which there are a few, but this is beginning to get political I guess so I am dropping it now...).

Funny thing is however, IKEA is huge with homebrewers in Sweden since it is easy to use some of their kitchen utensils for brewing equiment, most notably a false bottom can be made from the frying splatter screen STABIL (http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10112530/):


And a BIAB bag can be sewn from the SARITA cloth, which is sold by the meter in white in Swedish IKEA. And many other stuffs can be used in the brewing process if you use your imagination.

Gravlax is good food, cured in approximately equal parts of salt and sugar and lots of fresh dill (possibly with a few crushed black/white pepper corns) is the basic recipe, balance of sugar/salt defines the texture of the fish, the more salt the "harder" the meat. Wrap in a plastic bag, suck out the air and put a weight on two sides/pieces of salmon, fleshy sides together, spices in between. Leave in fridge for about two days, turn over once a day.
My brother makes a mean gravlax, using a shot of rum or single malt in the bag, which adds a dimension to the dish.

"Gravlax" means "buried salmon" as originally, before fridges, the salmon was cured in a hole in the ground wrapped in cloth...

olefattguy said:

"Gravlax" means "buried salmon" as originally, before fridges, the salmon was cured in a hole in the ground wrapped in cloth...

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That makes sense, thanks!

I put mine in the fridge on Sunday for a party on Sunday of this week. 2-3 days curing and the rest of that time chilling out in the fridge and it should be just fine right? Havent made it in a little while, hoping I havent jumped the gun.

Due to the Jewish influence in my house (ie my wife's best friend) we have taken to serving ours on a bagel heehee.

We've got a Karlstad couch in the living room that I am ambivalent about but SWMBO hates. It's being replaced at some point. Ikea has tons of cheap crap, but some of their furniture is still made with solid wood. The Hemnes line is solid wood and relatively nice. We use the low long dresser in my son's nursery as a dresser/diaper changer because it's the right height.

We've got one of their beds in the master bedroom and it squeaks quietly anytime you move or shift positions. I need to tighten down one of the supports, I think, but it's annoying.

We redid our kitchen a couple years ago and went with Ikea cabinets. That was the best decision we made. All of the cabinets, doors, peninsula, etc, cost lest than $2000. We had custom kitchen cabinets quoted at over $12,000. The best part about the cabinets is that the doors are interchangeable so if you get bored of one style, you can switch them out without any problems.

All that being said, my wife and I have started purchasing furniture that is designed to last. Our dining room table and chairs were probably twice as much as the most expensive option at Ikea but we know we'll have it for the rest of our lives. But we're at a point in our lives now that we can afford to make that decision. 5 years ago, Ikea would have been the only option.

The very best part about Ikea is the soft serve frozen yogurt for $1. We live close enough to one that in the summer, we'll make the trip just to get frozen yogurt. And their cinnamon buns are pretty damn good, too.

Personally we love their stuff in this house. I like their furniture so much that when I was fitting out our studio last year ikea was the first choice. I made a short time lapse of the whole thing if anyone is interested [ame]http://vimeo.com/25974847[/ame]. Not a single complaint about the quality or price. I've paid twice as much in the past for stuff that was half as good.

And I always spot something that I can put to use for brewing, cheese making or pickling in there.

Full size bed, TV stand, desk, and chest of drawers for me. Is it the best stuff money can buy? Of course not, but I'm more than happy with everything I own from them.

Also, Ikea has a really interesting corporate set up which shields the company from paying a lot of taxes. Ikea is a web of for-profit and not-for-profit companies, hidden owners, and off-shore holdings.

Here's a good write up from a few years ago:
http://www.economist.com/node/6919139?story_id=6919139

There's more out there to read about it. It's really very fascinating.

At 260lbs, I broke the front leg off of one of my IKEA Karlstad couches and I have another that is about to break free. No, I don't jump on them or sit hard. They are just not made for people like me.
Side panels are made out of OSB and stapled together with a pneumatic staple gun. The thing just came apart, had to rebuild the block that the leg sits on and add bolts to hold the OSB together.
They were not cheap couches but are built very cheaply, I could have bought something much better for $100 less. Because of the short back they become very uncomfortable after a few hours watching the tube.
Only positive is that I like the removable covers (I have dogs).

mredge73 said:

At 260lbs, I broke the front leg off of one of my IKEA Karlstad couches and I have another that is about to break free. No, I don't jump on them or sit hard. They are just not made for people like me.
Side panels are made out of OSB and stapled together with a pneumatic staple gun. The thing just came apart, had to rebuild the block that the leg sits on and add bolts to hold the OSB together.
They were not cheap couches but are built very cheaply, I could have bought something much better for $100 less. Because of the short back they become very uncomfortable after a few hours watching the tube.
Only positive is that I like the removable covers (I have dogs).

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I agree that the only true positive is the removable covers. Our cats shred the crap out of the arms.

You've got about 80lbs on me and I slouch when I sit on it, which I suspect leads to my overall ambivalence about the couch. SWMBO complains about the low back all the time. The next sofa will have a high back.

lactardjosh said:

Our cats shred the crap out of the arms.

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I also have a cat...
Yes the arms are shredded on mine as well.
Do you know where to get some cheap replacement covers?
I really don't want to give IKEA any more money for a couch that I hate, but if I can salvage this thing for under $100 I will.

mredge73 said:

I also have a cat...
Yes the arms are shredded on mine as well.
Do you know where to get some cheap replacement covers?
I really don't want to give IKEA any more money for a couch that I hate, but if I can salvage this thing for under $100 I will.

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I use the As Is section in Ikea for replacement covers. I've replaced the arm covers 2 times on each side for a total of $20. They usually have a good variety of colors and every time we're there we check to see if they have any covers in the right color. They just have a huge bin of all of their sofa covers mixed in, so you've just got to check to make sure you're getting the right covers. The labels say what they are for.

Do you or SWMBO sew? Material by the yard can be very cheap, and I'd imagine couch covers would be pretty easy... what with the large stitches and all.

I have also heard about a "chemical/solvent" smell on the couches? Any of the couch owners notice this?

I recently bought a couch almost identical to that one and highly recommend crate and barrel. It's expensive but their sofa frames come with a lifetime warranty. Plus you can get it delivered and the customer service was awesome. And you can get your couch in almost any color you want. Plus you can always get a slip cover later.

Ikea is ok. I can't stand the particle board b.s. Me and my wife have some of their furniture and it's not that great imho.

CreamyGoodness said:

I put mine in the fridge on Sunday for a party on Sunday of this week. 2-3 days curing and the rest of that time chilling out in the fridge and it should be just fine right? Havent made it in a little while, hoping I havent jumped the gun.

Due to the Jewish influence in my house (ie my wife's best friend) we have taken to serving ours on a bagel heehee.

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It will be just fine. You could cure it for up to a week, and then it lasts another week or so if kept in the fridge. Take it out of the curing plastic bag, pat it dry with a piece of kitchen roll and put it in a new, dry plastic bag.

In Sweden gravlax is an integral part of the Xmas smörgåsbord a.k.a. Julbord, and there have been cases of botulism(!) due to largely two factors:

1. Not enough salt, or using mineral salt when curing. This makes for an environment where microorganisms other than the lactobacillus thrive.
2. Leaving the gravlax out in room temperature for extended periods of time, going back and forth from the fridge to the table over days. Not good.

But yours will be fine. I guess you have been using Kosher salt then?

olefattguy said:

It will be just fine. You could cure it for up to a week, and then it lasts another week or so if kept in the fridge. Take it out of the curing plastic bag, pat it dry with a piece of kitchen roll and put it in a new, dry plastic bag.

In Sweden gravlax is an integral part of the Xmas smörgåsbord a.k.a. Julbord, and there have been cases of botulism(!) due to largely two factors:

1. Not enough salt, or using mineral salt when curing. This makes for an environment where microorganisms other than the lactobacillus thrive.
2. Leaving the gravlax out in room temperature for extended periods of time, going back and forth from the fridge to the table over days. Not good.

But yours will be fine. I guess you have been using Kosher salt then?

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Kosher salt (and pretzel salt when making pretzels) are the only salts found in my house . Thank you for the reassurance. If you were in New York, I would be curious to see how gravlax measures up to the one you had at Xmas .

My entire apartment is ikea. I really like the design and ease of assembly. You will definitely want some basic tools if you're assembling >4-5 things because the included tools will give you blisters. I'd recommend staying away from the particle board stuff if you can but they're good for night stands. The sofa i have is firm but fine. some things may come loose but a quick turn of the wrench solves it. Also has a bed and its very comfortable. Don't remember model names offhand, sorry.

Most of my furniture is IKEA, for the price, the quality is far higher than competitors. Also, they have a line of solid wood (not veneer) furniture that is very appealing.