In praise of an Ikea item

[Mike_P]

The one at Birstall (Leeds/Bradford) has its short cuts identified, ot least did last time I ventured in.

May apply at other stores but the loos at the entrance are accessed by an access which continues to the tills so a very quick shortcut if you want to collect something from the public warehouse or pay for something from the other warehouse.

Have an number of their items. Cycling kit occupies one of their childrens wardrobes

Did have a collapsing Billy bookcase . The back panel had partly come loose and dropped due to their being no base below it. A trip to the local timber merchants resulting in free length of wood cut to length with which to form the missing part of the base and the bookcase repaired.

 

[FrankCrank]

I purchased a couple of book cases from Oak Furnitureland a couple of years ago. Both arrived badly damage. When we rejected them they offered us £100 back to keep them, a pittance on the £900 ticket price for both. When they came to pi them up the team collecting them said they were heading to be pulped, an indication to me on the poor quality of the product and the poor value for money they represent.

We replaced them with two bookcases from IKEA at a fraction of the price. I found A video of YouTube showing how to easily make them more robust than stock so, after spending £15 on some wood and an hour adding it in, I now have two bookshelves that I am very happy with.

This may be the video you refer to


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_caV1-mj_o


Good way to beef up Billy!

 

[FrankCrank]

I can relate to the comments about the mazelike aspect of shopping there, had a few panic attacks myself, felt I was just going round in endless circles. The one over this way is really bad for trying to trap you in there. A while back they had Halloween stuff around the the store, and a full size skeleton sat on one of the sofas. I did wonder if it was some poor soul who never found their way out.

 

[FrankCrank]

I liked their office furniture - desks, bookcases, etc. I hate the shopping experience though and they joined my black list after they mucked my about with a click & collect order during Covid restrictions.

@FrankCrank that display unit looks good. What's the relevance of the various different models?

Yeah, some trinkets that I've accumulated over the years, and finally they have a home to display in.

The lower shelf is a sorta tech museum, with more bits to be added soon

The laptop is the first one I bought with my own hard-earned, previous ones were from employer.
The camera - last one I had that had film inside. Was surrounded by hilltribe kids at the Golden Triangle in northern Thailand, and they wanted to see the image on the (non existent) screen of the pic I'd just taken of them. Decided it was time to get one of those new fangled digital ones.
The phones - just old ones we kept from a few years back.
The compass - uses to take that with me for cycling along the Ridgeway back there, in my early MTB days.
The digital organiser gadget - a memory from when filofaxes were seen as old hat.

 

[AndyRM]

Big fan of IKEA, cleverly designed and although the destructions are sometimes weirdly ordered I've never had a problem with anything I've got from there. When I was a student I don't think I loved in a shared house that didn't have at least one Poang chair and a Billy bookcase.

Having a more compact living arrangement these days I haven't found a better option for space saving furniture at a reasonable price.

Like others though, I used to hate traipsing through the place to get to where you can actually buy stuff. The Gateshead store has well marked shortcuts so you can avoid the trek, although it can be fun sometimes, and a limitless supply of small pencils and measuring tapes.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

This may be the video you refer to


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_caV1-mj_o


Good way to beef up Billy!

Wasn’t that particular one but that bloke does inspire ideas.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

iKEA became an immediate success when it first opened its store near Amsterdam in1978. Many of the homes had very steep and narrow stairs and the usual way to bring ready assembled furniture into the property was to use a block and tackle to raise it up and then bring it in through the large front windows.

 

[figbat]

Our house has a lot of Ikea in it - all bedrooms have Ikea beds, drawer units and wardrobes and our large L-shaped sofa is Ikea too. I find their stuff well-engineered and easy to assemble. We also had to modify some wardrobes after we mistakenly bought the taller ones that were about 20 mm too tall; I whipped off the extra and redrilled some holes and they fit like made-to-measure now!

I don’t mind a visit to the shop, but you know you can order online and have it delivered? No need to suffer the maze or have to buy meatballs and Dumle you didn’t know you wanted?

 

[All uphill]

The simple design of most IKEA furniture suits the way we live, and we like the prices, so most of our furniture is from them.

Years ago we'd regard a trip there as a day out, but now we get stuff delivered.

Note: typed from an IKEA table, while sat on an IKEA chair, illuminated by an IKEA lamp, and with an IKEA mug full of tea.

 

[MontyVeda]

Yeah, some trinkets that I've accumulated over the years, and finally they have a home to display in.

The lower shelf is a sorta tech museum, with more bits to be added soon
View attachment 797595

The laptop is the first one I bought with my own hard-earned, previous ones were from employer.
The camera - last one I had that had film inside. Was surrounded by hilltribe kids at the Golden Triangle in northern Thailand, and they wanted to see the image on the (non existent) screen of the pic I'd just taken of them. Decided it was time to get one of those new fangled digital ones.
The phones - just old ones we kept from a few years back.
The compass - uses to take that with me for cycling along the Ridgeway back there, in my early MTB days.
The digital organiser gadget - a memory from when filofaxes were seen as old hat.

is that an old Samsung Note an the left?

I'm still using mine as a mini tablet/remote control.

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Agreed, they are not really dismantleable*.

*Is that even a word?

Now that someone has used it AI will have seen it, absorbed it and it’ll be in the Oxford dictionary by next year.

and then spell check will prevent its use anyway. Somehow changing it to dalmation

 

[Adam4868]

Life is so much easier/pleasant now I've found that they deliver to a local Tesco 😁

 

[Tenkaykev]

Life is so much easier/pleasant now I've found that they deliver to a local Tesco 😁

Friends daughter went to the Southampton store. She saw an item that was out of stock in store so ordered it online when she got home. The following day she got a text to say it was available for collection at her local Tesco.

 

[Tenkaykev]

I previously posted this in another thread. Kallax is ideal for Brompton storage ( though we haven't yet found anything suitable for the larger " G Line " bikes.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Big fan of IKEA, cleverly designed and although the destructions are sometimes weirdly ordered I've never had a problem with anything I've got from there. When I was a student I don't think I loved in a shared house that didn't have at least one Poang chair and a Billy bookcase.

Having a more compact living arrangement these days I haven't found a better option for space saving furniture at a reasonable price.

Like others though, I used to hate traipsing through the place to get to where you can actually buy stuff. The Gateshead store has well marked shortcuts so you can avoid the trek, although it can be fun sometimes, and a limitless supply of small pencils and measuring tapes.

I think their gear is brilliant but the instructions are a bit iffy.

Not so much in what goes where in what order but...

... how much brute force may be required.

On our PAX wardrobe we had drawers that needed the thin board bottoms snapped into place. Needed a lot of oomph before they went in with a large cracking noise.

Ditto the trims around all the door mirrors they also required a lot of force to click into place with a very loud snapping brttle plastic noise.

It was 'scarey' not knowing if the various pieces above were about to break as force was cranked up.