People, please stop with that IKEA plastic pendant lamp. It is plastic. It looks like plastic. If your whole house is cheap chic apartment rental, then maybe, but otherwise, it's "the iconic cheap plastic IKEA pendant lamp" that has been a DIY staple for the last 5 years. Time to try something else.

I could go on about the cheap IKEA sheepskin rug too but I think you can get the gist of my feelings on that item.

i get the rant for a cheap ikea lamp but cheap sheepskin rug? It's natural, real sheepskin, isn't it? I've bought the same thing in Australia for double that amount. I think it's a great item and great deal.

AT's love for IKEA knows no bounds. Surprised that chalk sprayed glass bottles - to use as a vase - are not on here too.

Geez, the IKEA lamp is what's getting people worked up? How about how a $350 rocking chair isn't really "for less".

I like that pendant. And sheepskin has been used for comfort for thousands of years. My SO and I have have sheepskins on our desk chairs for added comfort when sitting for a long time. One of them is from Ikea. The HORROR!

Sorry - but none of these say cozy to me (maybe the couch) - especially anything made of plastic.

Sheep skin = the skin and coat of a dead animal, still in an animal shape, right there in your living room (shudder).

I have lived in a community where people eat all kinds of animals and also decorate with their skins (knotty pine paneling is always improved with a few pelts, glassy eyed heads, a flag and some guns). It has a particular odor that I will never forget. The current interest in sheep skins, cow hide rugs, taxidermy/ faux taxidermy are never going to illicit any other feeling in me but utter horror.

I'm with you @OJK92. No piece of furniture from UO ever really seems like that great of a deal either. Plus, there are likely tons of wooden rocking chairs in thrift stores across the country that just need a little updating.

Another shameless fan of the Ikea sheepskin rug.

"If your whole house is cheap chic apartment rental"

Well the site is called Apartment Therapy. Calm down.

Agreed MAIATWEETS.

That comment kinda hit a sore spot with me.

My former work had like 5 of those Ikea pendant lamps! We got a ton of compliments on them, but I was the one who had to dust them :/

Anyone else notice that the size of the Ikea sheepskin rug has gotten smaller over the years? I had a couple in college and went to buy a new one earlier this week and it seems like they've shrunk in size!

Oh, @ Parnassus: I live in one of those communities too (I'm trying to buy a house but all the MLS pictures show more of the "Look what I killed!! Look at my ugly junk!!" than actual house) However, I think one item like the sheepskin rug, in it's place, can look and feel awesome. I'm not one for dead things everywhere, but even a faux sheep skin can be cozy and not so smelly.

As an animal lover, I have major feelings of guilt over sheepskins because I really dig the look. I got ours---actually, it's 2 sheepskins sewn together so I'm very aware that two sheep had to die---on eBay, gently used. So it was already "out there" and I just "took it off someone's hands." Just trying to ease my guilt.

You know, I'm an animal lover too, but as long as I am wearing leather shoes, own a leather couch, eating eggs and meat and cheese, using drugs in which animal studies were conducted, etc., I feel it is a bit disingenuous to get all worked up about a cowhide or sheepskin rug.

I like the UO ikat pillow but I am too cheap to dish out $44 for it, especially after I found out that the other side is in an ugly black and white. That's not reversible in my book. THat's a pillow with one good side only. :-)

@Parnassus
Well, the ikea sheepskins don't smell particularly. Like suede, maybe.

@alymarie
Actually, I finally wound up buying one (at the Elizabeth, NJ Ikea) and was puzzled that the Rens (no more Ludde) came in very variable sizes. I thought maybe the larger ones would ring up differently (since either the ludde or rens used to be larger and cost more), but they were all the same price/serial number no matter the size. A bit odd! Mine is pretty massive (and yet so fluffy! They aren't all the same fluffiness, either.)

Thinking of buying the rug.....how do you keep it clean?

I agree with Abstractionist, but I still can't get past the fact that I'm unable to eat meat thus feel guilty about my attraction to the IKEA sheepskins. They look so snuggly! Oh, and I do live in a cheap rental apartment, so I'll feel free to decorate in cheap plastics and even cardboard, thank you very much. Unfortunately, I know of no design blogs called Poor White Trash Therapy, so I guess I'm stuck with Apartment Therapy.