apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

"Hello, my name is rockypondgirl and I am an IKEA-holic." That said, if Dania or DWR ever offers bookcases for $80, I'm there. (Sweet place, Jess!)

I really, really dislike the whole ikea overload in apartments. My friend's apartment is almost all ikea, and I feel like i'm hanging out in a catalog - it feels sterile. I may own a bunch of mismatched plates from different vintage stores, but i'll take that over a complete ikea kitchen set any day.

What???

No plate of Swedish meatballs?

Yeah, I'm setting up my studio/warehouse, and it's a little alarming. Except for "my catalog", replace their retail prices, with As-Is prices, lol..... The whole thing turned into a project to see how cheaply I could put together a nice looking place, and living across the freeway from Ikea, AND having friends that worked in As-Is helped with that.

I now have more of certain things than I need, not as much of others that I do need, and a reluctance to put out everything Ikea because I don't want the freakin' place to be a showroom.

And what have I learned for the future? Well, after donating my excess stuff to friends and family, and garage-saling the rest (eventually), future purchases will be made with the emphasis on less being more. ;^)

Ikea is still awesome and always will be, and this project has been a BIG help in rebuilding my life after losing everything over a decade ago. I wish it was here in the U.S. back in the 80's when I had my first apartment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0xBX4xF3rs

I've never seen Fight Club, but here's the Ikea clip. And it still makes me laugh, because soooo many of us are slaves to Ikea.

Forced by circumstances (finances, time, and an IKEA store nearby) to outfit my apartment mostly with IKEA.

I don't mind since most of the people I know are in my income bracket and are in a similar situation. Sometimes I like to play a game when I go visiting called, "Name that IKEA piece."

In my head, of course.

no apologies here. love ikea for it's price-points and availability to me. I also don't feel bad about changing things up when I get bored or putting my feet on the coffeetable!

I am an IKEA addict! I own almost everything Ikea and mostly from the AS IS. And yes as AndreaU said I don't feel bad about being an Ikeaaholic since it's nice to be able to upgrade my place every year or 2 years!

There's no IKEA close enough to where I live, I imagine if there were though I'd have a lot of IKEA.

Being on a budget I haven't been able to find any decent and affordable shelving or storage. IKEA just feels like a logical option.

Even with the cost and time constraints many folk have for decorating their space, there's no excuse for not personalising the flavourless filler IKEA sells. It's not the ubiquity that makes so much of IKEA's offerings objectionable IMO, it's the blandness and lack of any identifiable character other than 'IKEA.' AT sometimes runs brilliant IKEA hacks (with comments invariably along the lines of 'I never would have known that was IKEA!'), but more often shows us the same unembellished stuff we can all recognise at 200 yards. A bit of paint, decorative paper and imagination can often elevate mundane IKEA pieces to the level of truly desirable decor.

I think just about everyone has Ikea something in their places! I know I do. My pieces are rather old but in mint condition. A lot of style for reasonable prices what else can you ask for?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7447686@N05/500072967/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7447686@N05/490636048/?edited=1

I have some Ikea things, but was dearly afraid of my house becoming the Ikea catalog so I developed some guidelines:
1. Use Ikea for basics, and only basics such as Billy Shelves, shoe racks, and buy only white or solid colored linens. I did break this rule however, and bought two printed pillows, but they sort of blend in. Only buy white lamps, and get the non-trendy ones, only the ones that sort of blend in or look classic.

Then my other rules are this:
1. Buy Vintage or Antiques first. If that doesn't pan out
then look at other stores such as Target, CB2, Crate and Barrel, unfinished furniture store, etc.
3. Add some organic elements and some wabi sabi to keep everything from looking new. A distressed country sideboard with a wooden butcher block top in the kitchen for example, some older vintage artwork, etc.
4. Ikea Hack. For example, I added mirrored doors to my billy bookshelf rather than using their standard glass ones (I just swapped out the glass for mirrors). Blue glass tops on my hemnes bedside tables.
5. Mix eras - I have a 1930s art Deco Sideboard, 2 teak Cherner chairs, 2 saarinen Chairs, 4 shaker wooden dining chairs, a 1970s gray leather and chrome recliner, WPA black and white prints....you get the idea.

Mix-in-match is my motto

I think at one time my apartment skewed much heavier than its current percentage! It has taken years to find the money and resources to replace it all. But at the time that I bought it, that was the best I could do. Now I'm down to one couch (which I'm thinking about replacing with another Ikea couch...) and one TV stand/entertainment unit thing.

I don't so much buy furntiure or big pieces at Ikea because they seem a lille flimsy, but it's a great place to get pots for plants, shelves and even a few textiles. Some of their fabric is so beautiful and reasonably priced.

It's funny, though, the Ikea stuff I do have people definitely recognize.

In my opinion it doesn't matter if it's IKEA, Ethan Allen, Room and Board, Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma Home...

...if someone's home looks like they furnished it at one or two stores or out some catalogs - That person is significantly "Personal Style" challenged.

My living room is almost an exact replica of a page in the 2007 IKEA catalogue. And you know what? It looks pretty slick. I love my living room as much as I loved the photo of it that appeared in the catalogue so many years ago. I'm not going to apologize for it. (And, as a side note, nobody should ever have to apologize for sweet finds in the As Is section.)

If I'd taken the $1300 it cost at IKEA me to decorate my whole living room - including two sofas! - and dropped it at my favourite downtown decor boutique instead, I'd have MAYBE walked out there with a coffee table and a lamp.

Super lame.

I do tend to draw a bit of a line at IKEA knick-knacks. My abundance of LACK shelving is stocked with quirky finds from garage sales and HomeSense clearance piles.

IKEA is a good place to utilize when you're just starting out, just moved, or just spent all your money on a down payment (like I did) and need to get your place livable and you don't have a truck and don't want to bother your friends/family with moving any more stuff for you.

I admit, I am a little aghast at all the IKEA stuff I have in my place, and for a while it did become an addiction.

In time I hope to start replacing the cheap IKEA pressboard stuff with nicer things, but for now it's livable and much better than sitting on the floor or eating off of paper plates.

I think that the devil is in the details, and you can put your stamp on your place with your collectables and artwork that can't be bought at any box/chainstore.

I have a lot of stuff from IKEA... I am glad that I managed to find sofa, recliner and dining set in a different place, so there isn't ikea only. But I am happy I was able to furnish my whole apt (ok, guest room still waits ;)) on a very low teacher's salary, no car (so very difficult to go and check craig's list stuff), far from antique stores and so on. Ikea's been a blessing to me, and especially that I actually really like many of their designs. I like simplicity and strong lines. I like the impact my black big expedit makes. I love that they are not afraid of color, and don't try to be elitist.

To me when I see apts with a lot of high end designer products it is very similar problem to an apt filled with as easily recognizable ikea furniture... but in the case of ikea I understand it much better, I am willing to pat on the owner's shoulder and say "hey, i so understand". with the designer pieces so many times I feel it's forced, elitist, trying to prove something or playing some kind of designers bingo...

I have very little ikea in my house. Not because I didn't buy a lot of ikea, but because it doesn't hold up to getting moved a lot. Moving furniture is my main form of exercise, and that stuff just falls apart. Now I buy solid wood whenever possible.

FYI: Billy shelves used to be super cool. When I bought a set in 1997/8 they were actually covered in real wood veneer.

My first apartment was nearly all Ikea, with a couple of hand-me-downs.

My current place has a better mix. A piece made by my husband and I, a couple vintage refinished pieces, a couple of industrial pieces, and a few chairs from DWR.

I'm always a bit hesitant about the more decorative pieces from Ikea- they're so universally recognizable (especially because everything seems to be primary colors that stick out horribly against my darks and neutrals). Do I really want my guests looking at my furniture and saying, "OMG, isn't that IKEA?" No, not so much.

However, I did finally give in last summer- I bought the Hemnes canopy bed. Yes, it's been featured everywhere, but the price tag and shape were truly irresistible. Plus, it's going to be so easy to paint. In a light gray wash, it's going to blend seamlessly into my existing decor- and it's going to look pretty high-end with a custom finish.

I'm glad that someone posted the Fight Club segment- that's always made me laugh. I think a catalogue living room would throw anyone into a personality crisis... if not a full-on mental breakdown!

I don't know, Ikea seems to be the logical choice especially when you are setting up a new place fresh out of college. Let's face it, you move to a new city, you have nothing, you probably don't own a car, you have no relatives in the area, you don't know the city well enough to go flea mkt shopping, or antique shopping, but you want everything to be organized ASAP. Where else would you go? (my situation exactly 2 yrs ago)

Someday, I will own my place and I will have my car and have enough money to decorate, but as of now, I'm happy with using my Ikea desk and dressers that I can easily throw away/sell when I move.

You could argue that I could find things off craigslist, but seriously? I have no intention of paying $100 to a "man with van" everytime I buy something off craigslist. And god knows how long it will take to furnish the place that way if you're starting from scratch.

I agree that you might eventually want to phase out some of the Ikea items depending on your preference, but the bottom line is, I don't see anything terribly wrong with being 100% Ikea.

Although having your entire furniture collection from one store kinda sucks no matter where you shop, but I don't get why people are so sensitive about the "everything IKEA" room. Let's see, what about the "everything Room & Board" room? I don't see anyone talking... :)

I think a lot of people end up furnishing their entire homes in Ikea because they just want it done. They don't want to stare at swatches all day, travel store, to store, to store in their quest for the perfect piece, or wake up in a cold sweat wondering if they really should be spending THAT MUCH on a piece of furniture. They just want a livable, presentable, functional space so they can move on with the important things in life, like family or career. Some might even suggest that those Ikea dependent people are actually the ones with their priorities properly organized.

For the rest of us who actually enjoy the process of decorating the home, I think Ikea and the rest of the "mall" home furnishings stores can be a valuable resource if used responsibly. I have a couple of tricks that I use to avoid Ikea bloat:

1) I always go to a very nice furniture store before I go to Ikea. Hit up Ligne Roset on your way to Ikea and you will be surprised at how bad most of the Ikea suddenly looks. With your design eyes properly refreshed, its easy to separate the chaff (99%) from the really great Ikea efforts.

2) I avoid the "best sellers." These are the pieces that everyone buys and, as cool as they might look, they aren't special because everyone and their grandma has one sitting in their home.

3) I try to use Ikea in "outside the box" sorts of ways. Hack it. Reorganize it. I nixed using Ikea Pax bedroom storage in my bedroom and went with the more customizable kitchen cabinet system to create more of a "built in" look. It's still Ikea and I still saved a bunch of money but I avoided the Pax cliche:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28955208@N05/3455293624/

On a side note, the lamps pictured on the nightstand are also Ikea, but I replaced the shades with custom shades to give them a new look.

I answered about a third, but now that I think about it... maybe it's closer to a half.

I don't think my place looks like an Ikea catalog, though. I'd like to think I've integrated the Ikea stuff with the non-Ikea stuff pretty well.

I'll probably try to phase out the Ikea as time goes by, but I like the pieces I do have. The Billy shelves are particularly awesome. My white ones have been through a couple of moves and held up just fine. I'm not sure about my newer black/brown shelves or my black TV stand (which already has some paint nicks, just from sitting in my living room). Guess I'll find out when I move again in a few weeks.

I moved across the country last year with no furniture aside from my old mattress, and had very little money to furnish a new apartment, so unfortunately most of it is IKEA. As I save money, though, I'm gradually replacing items with vintage finds or better quality new furniture and selling the IKEA stuff on Craigslist. Some pieces are worth keeping no matter what, though, like EXPEDIT shelves.

Ha ha, if I did this with my apartment, it would be a Craigslist catalog. At least 75% of the furniture in my home has been scavenged from CL. I am the queen of "I can pick it up tonight and pay cash!"

I don't really get the "good for the price point" argument. I rarely think IKEA stuff is inexpensive enough for the cheapness of the product--at least furniture-wise.

I have experienced a fair amount of Ikea furniture through roommates and a borrowed bed (long story) over the years, and I can't say most of it has held up well or looked particularly nice after a few months.

I am glad people have had better experiences than I have, but I had to answer "What's IKEA" because I don't own anything from IKEA anymore.

A few winters ago, IKEA ran a special event whereby they gave $100 gift certificates to the first thirty people who showed up dressed as holiday presents. Its hard to hold anything against a multi-national corp that does that.

The main advantage of being broke grad students who bought almost all their furniture at Ikea is that when your rent gets raised obscenely and you decide to be roommates, all the stuff goes together! I try draw the line at textiles though, because sewing my own duvet, pillows, curtains and so forth is easy and cheap and much more original.

Here's what I said in the earlier catalog-home thread, re: making Ikea not look SO Ikea -

My answer is always textiles. Throw a quilt over the back of a sofa. Dye slipcovers a nice non-catalog color (Highly recommend Dharma Trading's Procion dyes). Make a few accent pillows out of a uniquely textured materials.

I've got loads of Ikea, and I constantly get compliments on how unique my place is. Most everything has been customized a bit and surrounded by unique accents.

Here's the secret to shopping at IKEA:

Use the same critical eye when buying any piece of furniture there that you would when buying something at a more expensive store.

That's it.

IKEA isn't a god or a demon, and it's a little silly to try to champion it as either.

(By the way, I think Jess's mock-up is totally hilarious!)

for me, i just think ikea stuff looks nice, and i can afford it. being a twenty year old with a semi-stable seasonal job, and not-so-stable winter jobs, i have to go with things that suit my needs and look passable. my only other options are target and walmart furniture, and everything i like from there is always more expensive than at ikea. i'm not embarrassed that i own a lot of ikea pieces, i'm pretty fond of them.

as for them all looking stale and out-of-the-big-box, i work to customize them so they don't. i have an 8 cube expedit shelf under my television, and i've been considering making a set of curtains to go over the cubes, just to disguise it a bit.

i know in the future, as i get my life more established, and i move out of this apartment, i'll probably phase out the ikea, but for now, and for where i am, it works just fine.

I'm 22 and about a third of my furniture is IKEA, the rest consists of hand-me downs from my great grandparents (yes, awesome). I have some slipcovered dining chairs, an expedit (2x4), a very plain white table that I use for a desk, a Hemnes dresser, and some random lamps/textiles/kitchen stuff. Very basic. I went with white, mostly because it was summer when I was purchasing stuff and wanted my apartment to look crisp and cool.

I'm a teacher living in a teeeeeeny walk-up apartment in a rural area. IKEA makes sense, though I'm having major "omg guilt" moments about wanting to splurge on a Saarinen sidetable from a local mid-century vintage second-hand shop in town. Someday, I will furnish my space with only antiques and midcentury gems and craigslist finds.

@RichardinLA: "For the rest of us who actually enjoy the process of decorating the home..."

So those whose places are mainly outfitted with IKEA stuff do not enjoy this process? Weird. I thought the fact that we're all reading a design blog is proof that we all enjoy decor and decorating.

For quite a lot of us here, shopping mostly at IKEA seems to be a matter of circumstance (location, budget, etc.) rather than a preference. Hell, if I made more money and had my own car, I would definitely mix up my IKEA with unique vintage finds and higher-end pieces, as would (probably) most of the people commenting on this thread.

I like Ikea's style, but I try to avoid it because it's not very green. Nearly everyone who commented here either replaced their Ikea after a few years or plans to replace it. I'm guilty too. When I moved into my husband's Ikea-filled apartment, I started replacing everything piece by piece with antiques or vintage.

I always prefer to buy used when possible.

I'm also at the point in my life/salary that I'm damn glad to have Ikea around! I'm 22, in my first job, and in my first apartment by myself. I'd say I have maybe or third or less Ikea.

While I wouldn't want my place to be completely any one brand... just that fact that I can afford things from Ikea means I've moved up in the world! In my last shared college apartment, about 75% of our furniture was pieces we found on the street on moving day that other kids had thrown out. Even then, though, we were art students and we found ways to make the place our own. (It wasn't about "this couch doesn't define my personality" - there's more than one way to make a great place that you love to live in!)

Now I'm glad to say I've got grandma hand-me-downs, craigslist finds, AND new Ikea. I look forward to getting to gradually phase in my ideal pieces as time goes on, but for the time being I'm very happy. And some Ikea pieces have great style I think, so maybe I'll keep them! ;-)

I have Ikea envy. The nearest store is a four hour drive each way. If their online shipping rates weren't extortionate, I'd prolly shop there.

My bedroom is which I'm reeeally regretting... at the time I decorated it, I just wasn't finding bedroom furniture I liked/could afford and of course now I'm finding so much great stuff.

100% agree w/ Lisa (Montreal). When I moved into my current apartment 2 years ago, I realized that my 3 dressers and 2 rocking chairs didn't really count as furniture. So my roommate and I made a trip to Ikea and sadly realized that their furniture is not well-made.

A few weeks later, ended up purchasing an EUC PB Greenwich sofa and chair via Craigslist for less than half the price! And although it wasn't vintage or antique, I try to buy older pieces as often as possible. I'm on a very tight budget but classic, well-crafted pieces last for generations and with a little patience and smart shopping, you can score some excellent pieces.

My mom has a friend from Switzerland, who mentioned a few years ago how bad the quality has gotten; which was a total disappointment, considering how they tote themselves as a "green company."

I'm another student guilty of somewhere near 70% Ikea. Its not worth trying to fit anything not flat into my apartment, so why try- especially when I rely on my bike to get things from point A to point B.
I only buy the Leksvik series though for furniture, as it is solid wood, with a nice finish that doesn't scream Ikea the same as some of the more modern looking pieces. It also fits in well with an eclectic atmosphere, holds up pretty well, and I can sand and refinish if it holds up long enough for me to have the space to do that. Because I will someday replace it, I don't get stressed out if I forget that my hands are covered in paints or turpentine and I touch the furniture.

Despite my large amount of Ikea furniture I wouldn't say anything looks Ikea catalogue, save the kitchen, which is a rental, so I cannot be blamed for the old ikea cabinets that don't match! As many people have said, the trick is in the details. My couch, and most of my lighting, not to mention all my wood things are ikea, but I have painted the rice paper shades above my table, and plan on doing that with my floor lamps as well, used baskets from elsewhere, and mixed in hand crafted pottery and travel memorabilia (mainly vases, carvings, and rocks) on the major ikea pieces. I also have handmade quilts and vintage scarves as the main textiles, and a lot of art works in progress.

When my boyfriend and I moved out of our parents house we bought most of our main furniture from Ikea... (sofa, computer desk, dining table & chairs, coffee & side tables, entertainment stand) But I definitely wouldn't replace anything with more ikea... you get what you pay for, however I love the shape of our peanut work desk and our sofa is pretty comfortable for only being $400!

As I look around my apartment, I see very little from IKEA, but it's not that I don't like them.

It's just that now that I'm in a co-op that I own, and which I knew I would want to keep for a while when I moved into it, that influenced a lot of my purchases, because not only have I known since 1986 that I would only want to live in New York, but now that my home isn't tiny AND isn't rented, it really seemed worth it to invest in some stuff I knew I'd like.

But I do have some stuff that I found on the street back when I had just about no money. I'd take them in, spruce them up within an inch of their lives and end up keeping them as if I had spent a fortune on them, and actually when I'm in the middle of a make-over on something I feel pretty free to splurge on supplies.

Actually, the older stuff I found on the street ended up becoming really important parts of the DNA of the style of this place.

But I like modern stuff a lot and I'm crazy about West Elm and IKEA, and when I'm helping someone else with their place, if it's a modern style space to start with, especially, I like that clean look. My partner works in D.C. and I'm taking this coming week off to help him get that all set. Unfortunately, my understanding is that in the D.C. area, there's not really an IKEA within walking distance of a Metro stop, so that's not going to happen.

Zilch from Ikea for me. Mostly because I've never lived near a store & have only visited one a single time.

I'm in a somewhat different situation than most who post here, being a good deal older and not having had the joy of inheriting family furniture. We have always been grateful that Ikea let us furnish whatever grad student, and then starving itinerant art history professor digs we happened to land in. It's surprising how well some of the older (10 years) bits and pieces have worn. I have a quantity of galvanized storage boxes that still look great some 15 years later.

Right now,I look around our tiny but beloved apartment and see a Billy bookcase painted at least 3 times holding up our tv. It still looks fine, even with the swanky Paulistano armchairs we saved for what seemed like forever for. We recently got some red-stained pine Linnarp glass-fronted bookcases to store our ginormous collection of books, and we love them, and get admiring comments on them frequently.

Our kitchen is full of Ikea. Cooking utensils, cutting boards, shelving, hooks, etc., etc.

As so many others have noted, it's the quality of a piece that's important, not the name.

I like what Offtza said - why is it an issue to have a lot of IKEA but not to have the same-old same-old eames-saarinen-etc? Primarily price? I think it would be as easy to play name that classic mcm piece on AT than it would be to play name that IKEA piece, if not easier.

That said I bought a red PS cabinet in 2001 and am so p.o'd it's so popular! I see it everywhere!

Just because something is ubiquitous doesn't mean it's not stylish. So many of the house tours on this site have featured recognisably Ikea shelving, cabinets, chests of drawers to name just a few. Half the mid-century furniture so championed on these pages was just the Ikea equivalent of it's day. Like it or not, Ikea is a design force in the world today and being a snob about it just means you get to pay four times as much for something that doesn't look much different.

I have tons of Ikea furniture and, apart from price and liking the style, one thing that swayed it for me is that they give exact dimensions of all their furniture - in my small place getting furniture to fit without being too big or small is crucial, and I could only find one other catalogue here that did that (and was in my price-range). (Although yes, I also never leave home without a measuring tape)

it's difficult to calculate because it depends on the room: our kitchen and bedroom are almost ikea free (but if you open the italian made cupboards and czech made wardrobe you can admire ikea's pots, pans, glassware, boxes, cookie tins and not a small number of hangers). on the other hand, the living room is ikea's heaven with lots of billy and besta and 2 poang and whatsthenameofthecouch...let's say it's 50-50 or almost so.

In my house in Seattle, I think the only IKEA pieces are two Billy bookcases that I use as china cabinets. (The black wood look they sadly discontinued 10 years ago, with glass doors - these have been admired (and not recognized as IKEA) by everyone who sees them.) Almost everything else is from antique/thrift stores, Ebay, or family.

I recently moved to Germany, and brought almost no furniture, figuring I'd be able to buy fabulous antiques.

You know what? The furniture I actually *needed* was bookshelves, and a sofabed for guests. Bookcases in quantity, and sofabeds, don't come in antiques, and are obscenely expensive everywhere but IKEA.

And now the apartment is full... of IKEA. I think I can live with that.

I'm in a studio and on a budget so anything I bought is Ikea...and to top it off when my cousin and her husband moved into their new house, I inherited a few pieces of old furniture that is also Ikea. The oldest piece I have is a shelf that is 15 years old. :)

I don't hate. It looks nice, it fits my budget, and it will sell easily if I ever need to upgrade/move.


w00t!!

I also did a project like this (took pics of my place and made it an Ikea ad). I loved it!!

If loving Ikea is wrong, I don't want to be right! :-)

Our apartment is a mix. Almost 3 years ago, my partner and I relocated to Boston from Pittsburgh, and had to sell some of our favorite furnishings on craigslist because they were just too big to move and fit into our new Boston place. Boston is much more expensive than Pittsburgh, so we found ourselves in a cramped 1 bedroom filled with a bit of a mish-mash of college leftovers, hand-me-downs, and yes, Ikea.

Last summer, we moved to a much more spacious 2 bedroom place. We furnished our 2nd bedroom (which functions as a guestroom/office) completely with Ikea (some Ikea via craigslist), and I love that room. Yes, it could be a page in a catalog, but we were able to meet all of our needs - guest bed, work space, clothing/book/media/file storage - without breaking the budget.

The rest of our apartment has a fair amount of Ikea, but is mixed in with pieces from other stores (Target, Crate & Barrel, Macys) and a couple of antiques and hand-me-downs. Over the course of our life, I'm sure the percentage of Ikea that we have will decrease, but I think we'll always have some items.

So many people have this perception that everything at Ikea is cheap modern-knock-off junk that will fall apart - but that's only if you buy the cheapest of everything they carry. One of the things I like most about Ikea is that they have a range of price points and styles.

Yes, craigslisting is another great way to furnish on a budget, but as many mentioned above, some of us don't have the means to transport large pieces of furniture across town, or the space for stripping and re-finishing projects.

I have a Kipplan loveseat which is partially covered with some fabric from an old duvet cover to make it more unique, an Expedit bookshelf that is useful and stylish, some striped bedding that I love, and some convenience items like the pot lid hanger and Grundtal dish rack. I am thinking of getting some basic window curtains from Ikea as well.

I am 23 and on a tight budget, but I would keep almost all of the Ikea stuff I own even if I had more money to spend on my home. (The exception being the loveseat - although, I would probably keep it for the office/guest room area and get a different one for the living room area.)

I really don't care if people can point out that some of my pieces are from Ikea. I chose things that I like and I think that I have made them my own.

I have several IKEA pieces and some kitchen stuff in my place but it's far from being all IKEA or even mostly. Maybe a 1/3 of my items came from IKEA.

True it's not fine stuff and never was meant to be, but it's in many cases better than some of the other cheap stuff out there IMO. I avoid the really, really cheap furniture pieces, like that metal framed chair w/ the cover that slipped over it that sold/sells for $20. Some of the folding chairs might be pretty good and their plastic and metal chairs I've seen used in a restaurant as patio chairs and yes, they look a little worse for wear but have been outside for several years (read mostly faded etc). It does take looking at the piece, feeling it, testing it for sturdiness (does it rock?) etc and I've found some of the really low priced stuff they sell better off avoided but things like LACK, Expidit etc, are quite good and as one IKEA employee mentioned here once last year, just snug down legs and screws every so often and the piece will hold up quite well over the longer haul.

Like finer funiture, IKEA pieces will look bad if not taken care of. If you are hard on them and don't keep things snugged down, they will fall apart in short order, just like anything else you buy that is more expensive than IKEA, it will be turned into trash much sooner if abused.

I often refer to IKEA for small space storage ideas and for they often may have what I'm looking for in storage solutions in many areas that many places don't offer and are often much better looking styling wise than some of the other inexpensive knock down items sold.

but as for my place, I have other items that mix in w/ the IKEA, some hand me downs, others I've bought etc so while it's not the be all, end all of furniture places, it's often a good resource for those on limited budgets and for the basics such as bookcases etc.

My fiance and I are in the process of purchasing a home. We plan to hit Ikea hard so we can furnish our home easily and as affordable as possible.

I'm a poor college student. My apartment is a mixture of hand me downs and ikea.

The bunkbeds in our sons' room are from Ikea, and there are several kids items in their room from Ikea as well (clothes hamper, colorful hanging mesh toy holders).

The rest of our house is Ikea-free.

I forgot - if you go downstairs to our laundry area in the basement, you will find a half dozen Ikea folding hampers - perfect for organizing all of our laundry!

We bought a few Ikea items when we bought our new house, because the only furniture we owned was an armchair and a filing cabinet. However, we have mostly stuck to the things that are made from solid wood, like bookshelves and a dining table, with the exception of the Expedit shelves--I like the way they look but I do wish they were made of better materials.

I think their sofas and beds are crap, though. We got those from other local businesses. We sat on plastic lawn chairs for months until we found a sofa that we liked.

When I lived in a shared apartment in Denmark I often felt like I feel into an Ikea catalog. Here is a picture of our kitchen: http://picasaweb.google.com/andrea.beukema/Denmark#5259291695757843058

How many Ikea items do you count?

Every room in our apartment has at least three things from IKEA. I even own that coffee table in the first, second, and third image. u__u

What can I say? Compared to other options, when we needed new furniture, IKEA was the least expensive option.

Now that this has been blogged, don't you think AT and Ikea should team up for a contest?! With a nice fat gift certificate prize?

I can see the catalog insert with select winners, can't you?

Hell yeah, I have Ikea.

The little table I had in my mind for between the living room windows, the one I searched for forever, and bought and returned several times because it wasn't quite right? Turned out to be an Ikea bar stool.

The perfect chairs for my Room & Board Oslo table? The Ikea Gilbert, in black. I waited for those to come back in stock at my local Ikea, and it was worth the wait.

Plus, it gave me and my much-younger cousins something to talk about when they visited last month -- we have the same Ikea dresser!

I would have killed for a nearby Ikea when I was a starving grad student, but even now, when I'm a lot further from the wolf at the door, they just make some nice things at a very affordable price that work well in a small NYC apartment. I'm at about 20% Ikea now, with some furniture still left to buy for my apartment, and I think that ratio's probably about right, given my tastes. But the nice thing is, I don't feel guilty about freecycling any of it if I change my mind...

New house, small budget, LOTS of IKEA.

We have Billy units in the dining room (with doors) and in the library (to the ceiling.) We have Expedit (with drawer and door inserts in all the cubes) for craft storage. We have an all-IKEA office with Billy shelves, Expedit unit, Galant desk, desk chair, plus some drawer cabinets. We have a futon for extra guest bed space in the workout room. A few lamps...

We bought other furniture from local stores, but the things we got from IKEA were at least as good as the locally available options, and a lot more flexible in configuration. (Our old computer desk was from an office store: particle board, fake veneer, so badly built that the legs tore off if you tried to move the behemoth. It was more expensive than the IKEA replacement, less attractive, and had to be trashed. But it was the only thing we could find that fit the room and did what we needed to do, unlike anything nicer or second hand. That was before IKEA moved to New England.)

I'd also like to observe that I don't give a rip what "other people" think of IKEA, what they think of me if they recognize it, how similar my place might look to yours or to a catalog... I care that *I* like my environment, and my IKEA will probably only be replaced some day with custom built-ins that I cannot think of affording for years to come. Looks very good to me! (Especially compared to the traditional/colonial style stuff that is about all you can buy hereabouts.)

I have to travel about 3 hours each way to go to Ikea (and usually to Craigslist any Ikea stuff also), but I like the look. I don't LIKE antiques and vintage. I like a clean, modern look and Ikea gives me that at a reasonable rate.

In my experience they have decent stuff AND they have crap (like many places), so it's just a matter of looking around. I adore many of the items from CB2 also, but Ikea is more in my price range at the moment.

I think one of the great aspects of it also is that because it's not as expensive as some other places, you're more willing to try and customize it or hack it. Whereas if you paid $1000 for it, you might be much more hesitant to.

hey, SherryBinNH, AMEN! i live 3 hours away from an ikea, but my parents live close by, and whenever we go to visit them we also hit the ikea for furniture. we bought a new house last year and needed new couches, bookshelves, t.v. cabinet, nightstands, etc.
most of our stuff is ikea for a few simple reasons: we like the way it looks, it fits our price range, and there are absolutely no stores around here that cater to the kind of aesthetic we like. (everything's overstuffed, maroon, country blue, or log cabin-esque.)
all the stuff we have has lasted/worn very well.

Maybe IKEA should do a special magazine showing how their customers have used their products to decorate with.

Great job Jess!

I guess I'm more fascinated with the concept of IKEA than the products themselves.

Any way you slice it, it's great marketing and a household name to boot. It's just not for our living room.

I love IKEA but it is over an hour from my house, so I only go there like 2 times a year. I have a nightstand and dresser from there (MALM) in my bedroom but mostly ice cube trays, cutting boards, lamps, etc. Nothing big. I have a couple pillows on my couch and a rug and some sheets. Just your basic stuff, but I do love the store.

uhm, Billy shelves still ARE covered in real wood veneer.

Two years ago when I moved into my studio I was broke. I had just graduated from college and was working part-time for only $11/hour. I spent all of my graduation money on Ikea furniture: futon, dresser, arm chair, desk and chair, side and coffee tables, stool, floor lamp, and kitchen table and two chairs. I only spent about $900 for everything. Only non-Ikea items: homemade bookcases (my dad's a carpenter), bedside table from Urban Outfitters. Tragic.

I'm currently in the process of moving to a new apartment and with a new kickass job I'm hoping to replace most of the Ikea stuff piece by piece in the next couple years. Hopefully by doing it gradually I can have a more eclectic collection. Currently coveting the MG BW Louisa sofa and CB2's Teepee dining table.

she should put these on flickr! :)

The IKEA catalogue could well be a decorating for dummies book. My belief is that as a designer, I like to feel clever and original about the way I put anything together. Ikea has taken all the guess work out of the interior design/decorate process and made it almost too easy so that people with no flair can have a really neat place, but lets put snobbery aside, I have very fond feelings towards IKEA...it really has sorted out a lot of problems in the one place and at a reasonable price. If I look around my place I don't feel as though I am living in their catalogue but I have a heap of ikea stuff. there are frames on the wall, nearly every cupboard or drawer has some form of ikea organiser in it as well as a host of ikea market place stuff like tea towels, bag snaps,glass canisters, rugs, make up trays, the list goes on. Our playroom is almost all Ikea and I love the kids and baby section for nearly all of it's products especially the toys. Our study has a massive very cool world map on the wall (from the frame and mirror section) and the ubiquitous billy bookcases and desk as well as a healthy mix of vintage pics, old metal filing cabinet, a vinyl 60's office chair (found on the side of the road) the room looks great and was CHEAP. I don't live in the US and we do not have the range of retailers that sell similar products at the same low price point. It is a fun way to shop....kind of like poking through a strangers home and appeals to a voyeristic side to me that I am way too conservative to ever exercise elsewhere, and hey the names are funny too...who doesn't smile at the thought of buying a poang or a flarkenshnork (okay those 70% people will know I made that last one up) Some of the stuff is really junky, but you will always find that it will be priced accordingly so I can forgive that. Ikea is great value...just NEVER eat the hot dogs!

I've had a few Ikea products over the years, but they never last! The only item I still have from Ikea is the MALM bed with attached night tables. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather spend a little more to buy a quality item that will last 20 years than a product that lasts a year or two. I know many people are nervous about spending or are feeling the pains of a tighter economy, but the cheapest option isn't always the smartest...

I'm an absolute whore to Ikea kitchens. If I could, I would have new kitchen door fronts and cover panels changed out every year or so.

I read in an interview that (retired) tennis star Steffi Graf's apartment in NY was completely outfitted in Ikea furniture.

IKEA is great. When I downsized out of college from a 2 bdrm to a studio, I sold all the "big stuff" and created an apartment to fit -- quick fix! Living in 200 sq ft. was never easier. When my cousin was wiped out after Hurricane Katrina and had to set up shop with her kids in a new town with nothing? IKEA to the rescue. Design without breaking the bank. Plus, IKEA resells tend to recoup more than other more expensive items.

That being said, things can go a little far. I like to think that I've recovered from the instant design cravings IKEA induced, but I'll admit, there are still a few handy Swedish items in the house that will remain near and dear to my heart.

i could spend ayear looking at ikea stuff! i wish my house looked like pictures from the catalog.

Not many of us can actually own Ethan Allen or whatever high end stuff. I heart Ikea. I made a trek out there with my then Husband, I was so overwhelmed that I didn't buy right away. I so want my living area to be Ikea-esque. Because it so plain, you can customize it to your liking. I love it when people do different things to Ikea furniture. Don't hate, drink the Kool-aid, and join the Ikea nation. They don't die, they multiply!!

Love the discussion and everyone's points and the Fight Club link (BP's best). So what I can't get is the IKEA haters, yes some of their stuff is crap and some of their stuff is a little too ubiquitous for everyone's taste, but what?, you read AT and can't personalize things? Everyone proclaims to love MCM, a lot of modernism, say post-Bauhaus, especially the case study houses, were planned to fill housing needs for a large population suddenly back from war, ie income levels at or below us shopping at Ikea today, not blueblood Rockefeller types who could afford more, which is certainly where Ligne Roset and B&B italia are, as far as price points go. I think it's quite funny how the hospital where I work has vintage Eames chairs in the staff meeting rooms and some of the locker rooms, in case everyone forgot, that was their original purpose, utility, not iconic design!

Love the picture, Jess!

I just moved into my first apartment (that wasn't subsidized by the university). Considering the stuff that came in with me, I'm surprised there isn't more Ikea, but in our family we're big on reusing things. My bed is, quite possibly, the bed I was conceived on (yeah, gross but better than a stranger's bed)- it's a custom 48-inch captain's bed that we brought over from Hong Kong. With the original 48-inch mattress, and a bookcase/storage headboard behind it. It's the only thing that would fit in my bizarrely shaped bedroom. No sheets properly fit it! But I love that bed, when we came to Canada, I slept in it as a kid.

I also have this ridiculous seafoam-green sofa from Hong Kong, older than I am. It is also beloved to me, as I remember lying on it in the basement when I was a kid and loving the fake-leather coolness. Apparently it used to be light blue. That's how old it is. It has water spots and things and it's terribly out of date, but it's so awesome.

The "coffee table" is actually a glass-top end table, because I couldn't fit a full-size coffee table into my space without crowding. And it matches the couch size. I always consider coffee tables here to be too low to the ground, anyway. I don't want to have to reach down to put my drink down, thank you.

I actually think that, in my entire something-less-than-300-sq-ft apartment, there's only the bookcase from Ikea, and that's because I have a lot of textbooks. I plan on ripping out the paper backing eventually and stapling something more interesting in, not that you'll be able to see it on the bottom three shelves because of the tall textbooks. There isn't an Ikea too close to me, that's why- if we buy from there, we have to ship it in ourselves by minivan.

Anyway, my conclusion is that things from Hong Kong are better sized for apartments, because man do they know how to fit things into small spaces there. If there was a Hong Kong equivalent of Ikea that was selling here, I would be there in a snap.

I live away from an Ikea now, but ordered my library (9 black-brown Billy bookshelves) from the catalog. Even with delivery it was a cheaper and better option than anything else available locally. I would not be able to get 9 matching vintage bookcases. I wish I'd ordered the Expedit too, oh well.

I also own an Ikea desk chair from when we lived in CA, but I'll be getting rid of it soon because it is uncomfortable.

Everything else I own is vintage or second-hand from craigslist. I have a very limited budget. If I lived closer to Ikea I would have more *stuff,* but honestly I like the sparsity and practice discipline - eventually I will have everything I need, and the vintage pieces will last longer than Ikea.

I don't mind seeing lots of Ikea in others' homes. It's a reasonably priced and good-looking option.

Hello everyone! I am also a grad student on a limited budget, and my apartment is largely Ikea. However, I don’t buy my Ikea furniture new – it’s all "previously enjoyed" furniture from Craigslist! This is great because it's much less expensive (my ‘Klippan’ was only $60 including delivery, and my dresser was free!), and helps alleviate some of the environmental concerns associated with Ikea furniture because you’re re-using. I'm currently finishing a two-year degree in Vancouver, and I will be moving back to Toronto in the fall. I'd love to be able to spend more time scoping out great vintage pieces and refinishing them, but I'm only here for two years, so it's hard to justify the investment of time when you know you will have to turn around and sell everything again when you leave! Another advantage of buying Ikea items used from Craigslist is that you know the exact dimensions of the piece you are buying, so there are no surprises (usually) when you go to pick it up, which is important in a small space. My partner and I tried to break up the Ikea-ness of our space by building some pieces, like a 2-person desk and an ottoman. Several visitors have commented that our place looks like it should be in a magazine, so I think we have done fairly well with our budget and time constraints! It's also fun that things like the Poang chair can become conversation pieces. Even one of my profs has one in her office!

In my room I only have two IKEA pieces... a small black LACK shelf which is hanging above my second IKEA item, which is black-brown LACK bookcase that is on its side being used as an entertainment center for my video games. I plan on IKEA hacking the bookcase some day to put a track system and two acrylic sliding doors on the front. Not sure what colors yet, I'm thinking red, black, white, or some kind of rice papery-looking stuff (My room is like a modern/Asian fusion with a dash of my personality).

The rest of my room's decor is a combination of Staples modern office furniture, Target/Kmart, local busineses, local events (Like the recent Japanese Trade Show), thrift store finds, and then things like gifts, and family and neighbor hand-me-downs that I fixed up a bit.

For the most part, I like IKEA for supplying stuff that looks nice for reasonable prices. (Finding a long, clean-lined entertainment center that I liked for under $200 was difficult without IKEA, got mine for $80 including wheels). However, I really don't want to put together a room that looks like an IKEA catalog, even though those rooms can look pretty nice.

Overall, I really love the idea of mixing IKEA-class items with thrift store finds, hand-me-downs, and expensive furniture splurges. Which is what I would love to do with my future dwelling.

Billy bookcases: 6
Lack coffee table: 1 big and 2 small
Kitchen island: 1
Random kitchen utencils: multitudes (plates, glasses, and so on)
Ektorp couch I'm sitting on: 1
Dressers: 2
Lamps: 3

I find it interesting that the vast majority of people commenting here are Ikea-philes. Before the economy started collapsing, there were more negative comments about Ikea.

For a modern, clean aesthetic, especially for accent pieces like entertainment units or bookcases, it's hard to beat IKEA. Where I live we have some stores with Scandinavian-inspired furniture that's pretty similar, but more expensive, and it's not any different in quality than what I can get from IKEA. And you still have to put it together with allen wrenches and those weird twisty plug things.

I think SCALE is one of the biggest benefits of IKEA's offerings to people who live in apartments and small houses. Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, and places like that may have slightly better quality, but everything is sized for McMansions or more spacious older homes. When I moved from an old Arts & Crafts house last summer to a much smaller Mid-Century bi-level, I had to sell a lot of my furniture on Craigslist because it simply wouldn't fit in the new place.

I also love IKEA for children's furniture (the MALM dresser, for instance) and kitchen stuff. And I dream of redoing my 40s kitchen with IKEA cabinets someday.

Save up and get something that will last more than a year. I'm sick of seeing crippled Ikea products on the curb every week for trash pick-up.

I've got an Ikea bed, dresses, and some bookshelves, with a few fun things like hearts and stars ice cube trays thrown in there. Ikea is about 2 hours away from me, so its cheaper for me to just go to Target or scope out the local thrift store if I need something. My former roommate had Ikea everything though, but we both had personal accessories, which kept the house looking too catalogue-y.

As for everyone that thinks Ikea is crap, anyone that has sat on/laid down in my bed always comments on how comfortable my mattress is. Cracks me up, because its this cheap little Ikea thing that came rolled up. I love it.

I have several IKEA pieces, including my sofa and coffee table, and pretty much everything in my office. Let's face it: the Expedit shelves are perfect. Why be ashamed of them?

I do have some cool vintage Craigslist finds, like a white/chrome/lucite dinette set and two fiberglass shell chairs, but more often than not people ask ridiculous prices for good vintage pieces.

The fact is that I'm a fan of the mod aesthetic. Lots of white laminate, clean smooth rounded lines, and bright bold colors. Where the hell else can I find that stuff? I think I have enough other vintage pieces mixed in that it doesn't look like a catalog though.

Ikea must make a fortune on the Billy bookcases alone! When my husband and I were redecorating our living room, we wanted the look of built-in bookcases - which we found would cost a small fortune. On a whim, we stopped at Ikea and bought the Billy bookcases with the shelf extenders and voila! They look just like the built-ins we wanted, especially after filling them and dressing with accessories. We have had them for several years, loaded with books, and none of the shelves are sagging - which has happened to us before with other bookcases.

I LOVE antique stores, and shopping second hand. But when your apartment is empty it gets old real fast going out every weekend to look for exactly what you need, and coming back with MAYBE a chair or a cute end table. When I can stop at Ikea drop 250$ and walk away with two deck chairs (real cedar), a huge lamp, microwave stand, glass shelves, and a few random kitchen wares from as-is. This sort of trips might not have cost me more, but would have taken me WEEKS to amass from flea markets. Half as much time and work, same amount of money.

Mixing them in with enough second hand furniture, hand-me downs, and DIY projects, it's not even noticeable. I grab most of my textiles and kick-knacks from fair trade stores and always check the curb on junk days. My apartment doesn't look great, but it certainly makes me happy to walk into.

I love IKEA! I don't have much, since it's five hours away and my car is little. But, I seem to make the trek every 9 months or so. I need nightstands and end tables at the moment, and another trip seems imminent!

I have been super happy with my Hemnes canopy bed. I would rather have lovely handcrafted items, but they're just not available in anything resembling my price range (I could save up for a really nice bed, but where would I sleep for five years while I waited?).

I do shop CL, but it is mostly hideous around here...

It's hard to resist buying things from IKEA when you're starting out or on a tight budget. It takes a little creativity to work in other things found at thrift stores, tag sales, etc. But that's the fun part!

For me, a little IKEA goes a long way. Anything I own from IKEA is either for organization(containers, hampers) or a kitchen utensil. Everything else in my apartment is from craigslist or bartering with family and friends.

My initial reaction was that I could probably live without IKEA...but after I thought about all those Lack shelves and other organizing bits...laundry room...guest room...closet. YIKES! I don't want to ever be TOO far. People who shop at IKEA ask about certain items in our house because they recognize them (shelves, a platform bed, some planters...). People who don't shop there can't believe where they came from.

I bought these adoreable towels from skinnylaminx on Etsy for my future sister-in-law because she's having IKEA withdrawls.

http://ny-image1.etsy.com/il_fullxfull.55282301.jpg

P.S. the towels are called "i wish we had IKEA".

Now officially in lurv with SherriBinNH! and I agree - who give a flip who spots my IKEA bedside tables, coffe table and dressers? I like them and they look cool in my space. And BH!!! Elliollite - the hot dogs are one of the best parts of the entire IKEA experience:-))

Same-Day delivery service that will get your stuff home for as little as $80. Highly recommended by Apartment Therapy and was in New York Magazine's Best of NY section:

http://ikea-delivery-alternative.com

Here's the original AP write-up on them:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/movers-storage/ikea-pickup-delivery-by-eric-012709

One computer desk years ago...

Tho my daughter loves her IKEA dragon ;)

We have quite a bit, though it isn't readily recognizable as "OMG, IKEA!" since we tend to buy only our pretty basic stuff there (lots of Billys, most of our curtain rods, organizers, lots of kitchen gadgets, basic Lack cheap end tables, comforters but not most of the covers) but have gotten our more statement-making stuff (rugs, art, anything with a pattern or details on it) from various sources. Our house definitely doesn't look like an IKEA catalog, especially with all the vintage stuff and world art.

I don't get all the ikea-hate.

IKEA has terrific deals on sturdy furniture that will serve its duties until it's time to move (and most likely sell most of it simply because it might not fit in the new place).
It doesn't cost a ton of money and doesn't produce emotional attachments, so the furniture is easy to leg go off when it's time to move to another coast/country.

Yes, if you are living in your own (as opposed to rented) place, you are settled down and don't plan to move within the next 10 years, there are more attractive (design-wise) options out there.