

What's wrong with Ikea? - cwan
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/08/whats_the_matter_with_ikea_a_d.php

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jrockway
I stopped reading after the author suggested that IKEA furniture be illegal.

I love IKEA. The furniture is designed to be really easy to put together; if
you do something wrong, it simply doesn't fit. This shows that a lot of
thought is put into each piece of furniture, and that makes me happy.

(Yes, sometimes I try to put something together incorrectly to make sure that
I can't be misunderstanding the instructions. With cheap furniture, it will
fit together fine and be wrong. With IKEA furniture, it becomes immediately
obvious that you are doing it wrong. You simply can't continue until you do it
right.)

Anyway, to me, IKEA furniture is kind of addictive. I love getting a box of
particle board (+) and then, with just a little bit of instruction-following,
having a solid piece of furniture. It's almost as fun as Lego! (I am almost
disappointed when I am done putting it together. Yeah, now I have a functional
piece of furniture that will make my life slightly more enjoyable. But ...
putting it together was so fun, I'm upset that it's over.)

I also like how the styles and colors fit together, and how it is minimalist
with just a touch of "design". I love IKEA.

(+) A lot of people whine about the quality. If you buy the super-cheap stuff,
yeah, the quality is low. If you buy the mid-range or high-end stuff, though,
the quality is great. There's a reason some of their furniture comes with a 25
year (!) warranty. They expect it to last for 25 years. From what I've seen,
it does.

You can pry my allen wrench from my cold, dead hands.

~~~
cwan
I think you may have misread it. Megan McArdle more or less agrees with you
because though she might not like Ikea furniture for herself she absolutely
believes you should be able to buy cheap(er)/discount furniture and that it's
good for everyone. McArdle's debating the author of Cheap
(<https://www.amazon.com/dp/159420215X>) who believes otherwise.

~~~
jrockway
I am saying that I like IKEA regardless of price. I think it's a place to get
functional, well-designed, and pretty furniture. I like the design better than
the "nice" stuff.

So "discount" doesn't factor into it.

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yvueywa
>life's ambition is never again to spend four hours messing around with an
allen wrench

4 hours? So its still fashionable to pretend that you have no engineering or
practical aptitude! Imagine reading the atlantic and claiming you didn't
understand theatre or poetry

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derefr
Usually when I hear this complaint (on putting things from IKEA together),
it's not a problem with putting things together in general, but _allen wrench
usage_ in particular that gets them. I'm not sure why—maybe the fact that the
process is reversible and doesn't involve making holes in wood makes the
constructor feel like they're playing with Lego rather than actually
"building" something?

~~~
philwelch
Allen wrenches are the least usable types of wrenches or screwdrivers I've
ever used. I always end up skinning my knuckles.

IKEA should develop and sell a better allen wrench.

~~~
pasbesoin
I recently put together some trestle leg table/desk supports from them. The
included, sort-of-S-shaped allen wrench worked just fine. Actually, I was
impressed at how well it worked combined with its minimalist design.

I'd be cautious using a drill/power driven allen bit. The wood in my trestles
is not the hardest, and I can see where too much power too quickly could
damage it before one's reaction time caught up with events. If you are
cautious, things should be fine. If you just set a torque limit and fire away,
you could end up unhappy.

~~~
philwelch
I'd like an allen wrench bit for a traditional hand-powered screwdriver.
Though one of those low-power electric screwdrivers we use at my work to
install rack-mount equipment into racks might work OK too (if it had an allen
wrench bit).

~~~
pasbesoin
There are handheld / hand-driven screwdrivers that have replacable... bits, I
guess one would call them. I have one that switched between large and small
blade and Phillips heads. Now that I check, I also have an inexpensive Husky
screwdriver/bit set that was a Secret Santa gift; it has hex bits, though I
haven't used them.

I'd think before using it for IKEA assembly, though. For the trestles, the
screws required significant torque to penetrate. Applying that repeatedly for
these not too short screw, by using one's wrists and a screwdriver grip, I
imagine would quickly become tiring. A nice thing about the IKEA "throw-away"
wrench is that its S shape allows one to create significant torque with a
finger grip, lessening strain on / torsion of the wrist.

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gchpaco
Having owned a bunch of older and newer Ikea stuff, the real problem IMHO is
Ikea knockoffs. If you're willing to buy actual wood, Ikea sells it and it
works fine--it's not especially decorative but it is at least decent at being
tables/beds/whatever.

However, if you're in the market for a bookcase, say, and decide $100 is too
much to pay for one, your choices are all bad particle board with melamine
poorly installed. If you're very lucky they last a year. Ikea makes this too,
but I'm convinced it's because they felt they had to compete with the
purveyors of this junk.

Older Ikea stuff tends to be made with wood and actually holds up pretty well
--I have a pair of 30-40 year old Ikea end tables that are perfectly stable
and usable, although not pretty.

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bkz
Believe it or not IKEA is probably the most ethical and hacker oriented large-
scale company currently around. They don't scam people into buying stuff which
breaks and needs to be replaced, they retain customers by offering something
to everybody while at the same time introducing fashion and trends which makes
people want to buy new stuff. Insider tip: use ordinary glue when you put
together furniture. You know how solid all the furniture seems when you try
out at IKEA and you don't really get the same feeling when you put it together
yourself? Well, guess what.

~~~
billswift
Don't glue it up if you want to be able to take it apart to move however.
Several of Megan's commenters said one of the particular things they liked
about IKEA is that they could disassemble and reassemble it easily.

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jsz0
I've always found a little wood glue and some strategically placed screws can
make cheap furniture pretty durable.

~~~
lallysingh
And a torque-adjustable drill with an allen bit can make the assembly pretty
quick!

And pretty fun after a few beers!

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eli
Dunno if it's true, but a PR flak who worked with IKEA USA told me that their
fall catalog (which is distributed worldwide more-or-less identically) is the
second most-printed publication every year after the bible.

~~~
yvueywa
It's supposedly also the worlds biggest photo shoot and the worlds biggest
studio.

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donw
All I really get from this is that the author doesn't like cheap furniture.
Which is fine... she can buy her furniture somewhere else, or build it
herself.

~~~
cwan
Megan McArdle is saying there's nothing wrong with buying Ikea (or any
discount) furniture despite what Ellen Ruppel Shell argues in her new book
"Cheap" (<https://www.amazon.com/dp/159420215X>)

Shell argues that buying Ikea (and our "discount" society as a whole) is
immoral and costly.

