| Don't be hating on IKEA. |
[Jun. 23rd, 2005|07:56 am] |
Next Wednesday, IKEA finally opens the Atlanta store. I've been anticipating this since around 1996 when I first went to the one in Baltimore. Cheap goods and the crowd of meatball-consuming cafeteria regulars create a mini-culture I love inside a big blue box, but I have read a few hasty words of IKEA-hate lately. IKEA must be defended!
While it is highly likely that you can by a piece of crap at IKEA, it is a mistake to believe you can't find both good value and good design there. It doesn't take a genious to avoid buying a particleboard entertainment center, but sometimes a particleboard entertainment center is exactly what you need unless you're planning on furnishing your dorm with Cappellini.
While I sometimes find knock-offs to be a dubious practice, I don't mind cheap alternatives when the high end manufacturers are just being elitist jerks. I picked two examples (though there are many others) where IKEA has created a good alternative at a low price. The nesting tables are very similar, and there is little difference in the quality of bent plywood - a very sturdy and logical way to construct these tables. The lamps are functionally identical with IKEA sacrificing some quality in terms of materials but not design. I own a pair of Samtid lamps, and the plastic isn't a problem.
IKEA housewares are dirt cheap, and buying them is a good way to reject Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn who have their own crap to sell to you at five times the price. In fact, Crate & Barrel has felt IKEA's impact so much that they've created CB2 - an online catalog of more affordable items.
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| Comments: |
I second the motion to defend Ikea.
*written from my Ikea bed*
From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jliv
2005-06-23 01:14 pm (UTC)
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You know, I really haven't been that impressed with the Ikeas I've been to. They're like H&M stores: the concept sounds great, but once you start browsing, there's very little you HAVE TO HAVE.
Maybe I'm just too elitist, but I'm non-plussed by IKEA. You shouldn't have to sacrifice quality to get style.
(All IKEA kitchen utensils I've ever bought never lasted a year... )
Sacrificing quality for style is not what I have suggested. If you have only $30 for a floor lamp, you'll probably get the best $30 floor lamp at IKEA (unless you find a gorgeous, modern Stiffel at a thrift store).
Brodie's comment below pretty much demonstrates that "you get what you pay for" is still true at IKEA for better or worse, however it's possible to get something decent (like the examples I made).
It's so easy to be an IKEA hater when you buy the cheapest stuff they sell and complain about it falling apart. I see this happen all the time. However they have many grades of merchandise that you can choose from. Many of them at a very good price point still with interesting style. But yes, your 6/$3 FÖFYLUHUND trivets are probably somewhat disposable. And that sofa for $149? I give it three years. But beyond that they're pricing and styling quality goods much better than most anybody else.
Oh get off it already...
IKEA is Rooms-2-Go for gay people and disillusioned minimalists
I expected a better counter from you than this. A good pundit is one who can defend his opinion instead of just making statements under the delusion that he is always right. I have demonstrated in my example that IKEA isn't all crap, and I never said it was all great either.
I've been buying and selling vintage modernism for about 15 years now and can tell you that IKEA does succeed in making complementary pieces some of the time. I will concede that furnishing your apartment with the tacky things seen on any episode of The Real World is pretty dorky, though. And, finally, a truly disillusioned minimalist is one who will pay $8000 for a chair.
very true - and I retract my comments - BUT why do they feel the need to give their wares such God-awful names?
Ah yes, those damn names. I wonder if they're cheeky in Swedish? That would be all too euro-typical.
Also, sheesh! My comment makes it look like I have a tighter sphincter than I do. I realize you were being funny.
I know sweetie - and believe-you-me, I've gotten plenty of flack (even from my mother) for IKEA bashing | |
