Comments on: Ikea: Better than bricks and boards?

By: Monroe on a Budget » Money blog carnival roundup

Monroe on a Budget » Money blog carnival roundup — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:45:03 +0000

[...] About Money presents Ikea – better than bricks and boards?: “Most of our fellow shoppers were twentyish-to-thirtyish adults who had the harried look of [...]

By: Frugal Babe » Archive » Welcome To The 142nd Festival Of Frugality

Frugal Babe » Archive » Welcome To The 142nd Festival Of Frugality — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:52:27 +0000

[...] from Funny About Money writes about the ins and outs of Ikea. I’ve never been to an Ikea – I’m not sure if there are any around here; [...]

By: funnyaboutmoney1

funnyaboutmoney1 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:46:11 +0000

Yeah, I think Ikea has stuff that’s well worth braving the madding crowds. Actually, if you show up an hour before closing time, most of the mob has cleared out. Some of the furniture is more than just acceptable — in yesterday’s “Home” section of the NY Times, what should I see but an absurdly expensive glass-topped table slung over sawhorse-style legs that looked just like the piece we spotted there last weekend. I loved the fabrics and am thinking about driving back down there to buy a yard or two to recover the dining-room chair seats, and I thought the sliding shoji-like curtains were tooo kewl.

To my mind, Ikea excels at the kitchen stuff. The big globe-shaped stainless-steel pot I got there still gets admiring remarks from my friends. It’s held up just fine — no rust or dents or hot spots. And they have the cheapest kitchen gadgets this side of Goodwill.

By: Kelly from Almost Frugal

Kelly from Almost Frugal — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:59:26 +0000

Coming out from the darkside here… I love Ikea. If you buy the cheapest furniture you get what you pay for, but their mid range stuff is nice and fairly solid. I too have an old couch from Ikea, in surprisingly good shape for its eight years, as well as too many other items to count. The furniture and decoration is amazingly cutomizable (check out Ikeahacks.blogspot) and I’ve found that it stands up to my three kids, three cats and French husband quite well! Plus, I live in a two hundred year old house, and I’ve never had a problem fitting anything in…
(slinking back into my corner now.)

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:04:25 +0000

ugh! I hate dealing with Ikea. That store is bonkers and it feels as if you can never leave their store. It is a maze of bad products and even worse service.

By: copyeditorsdesk

copyeditorsdesk — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:11:47 +0000

Arf! Copyeditorsdesk is actually moi, Funny about Money. The vagaries of operating two blogs in WordPress…especially when life is one long senior moment!

By: copyeditorsdesk

copyeditorsdesk — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:05:21 +0000

Yeah, I’m impressed with second-hand stuff…I like estate sales in particular. If you get there first thing when they open, you get a shot at the good stuff before the dealers grab it. I scored a beautiful hand-made solid cherry table for my son, a leather recliner, and a matching leather sofa. Awesome!

Zowie! If you got 10 years out of an Ikea sofa, VfYL, you must really have taken care of it well! It might be worth trying to make new covers, or hiring someone to rebuild the cushions.

Ah yes, my father, born on another planet from mine. Actually, he was just a man doing the best he could under the circumstances. It couldn’t have been easy for him. And he did come from another time: the turn of the century actually WAS another planet, when nice girls didn’t riot in the streets to protest their country’s misguided war, associate with queers and blacks, wear skirts up to their heinies, swear like pirates, pursue Ph.D.’s instead of raising families, or join the ACLU. He must have seen me as some sort of alien creature.

By: !wanda

!wanda — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 09:23:30 +0000

I went shopping at Goodwills about a month ago for my new apartment and was really, really surprised at the quality of items. For example, I got a large solid wood dresser with latticework and a separate panel with a huge mirror for $56. Yes, there are nicks and scratches on it, but that’s OK because I’ll add some too. Also, I had to hire a U-Haul to haul it all from the richer towns with nice Goodwills to the city where I live, but it was still cheaper and overall probably better quality than what I could get by buying new.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 04:50:50 +0000

My goodness, do you dance on your father’s grave every chance you get? After the post a couple of days ago (to which I meant to comment) and now today’s, where he paid your husband to elope with you. What a jerk of a father! My father is a jerk, too. I always say it was a good thing he abandoned my pregnant mother (and my younger sister) when I was five. He found me about ten years ago via the Internet and I briefly allowed him back into my life, until he started harrassing me about *my* weight. Hello? You left my mom because she was ten pounds overweight. 10 pounds! You ran out on me so you don’t have ANY RIGHTS at all to say a word about my body size. Oh boy, sorry for the rant. I have never understood the fascination with IKEA and have never set foot inside that one. Sounds too busy for me to have enjoyed it at all.

By: Value For Your Life

Value For Your Life — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:39:23 +0000

I’ll bet Ikea is a zoo today with all of the long weekend shoppers and college and university students going back to school. Almost exactly 10 years ago I made a big trip to Ikea to furnish my first home I shared with some college roomates. The pine-framed sofa, and pine coffee and end tables are still in our living room today. Total price for this living room set that I varnished myself and allowed to age beautifully was about $300 at the time. Now a couple of the sofa cushions have started to tear from the dogs climbing on and off, and I’ve been repairing them every time I pull them off to wash the covers, but I know the sofa’s days are limited in our home.

I cringe at the thought of having to spend some serious money on something durable, nice looking, and easy to clean like a microfiber sectional sofa that all four of us can sit on at once, but I guess that’s the way it goes! I’m very thankful that the Ikea furniture has lasted as long as it has. I’m so attached to this furniture that I’m wondering if we can sew new covers and keep it for a cottage one day…
Amanda