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Comment by JohnFen | Hacker News Reader

I legitimately had no idea IKEA sold anything of real quality. TIL.

Have you never been in an IKEA store? They sell a lot of solid wood.

I have IKEA furniture that's lasted for decades. It's value-optimized, but it's usually well designed; if you put it together properly, it will last.

Yes, of course I've been in IKEA stores. That's where I've purchased IKEA furniture. I just didn't know they sold anything of high quality.

I think IKEA is sort of like the Toyota of furniture. It doesn't look amazing, but it's higher quality than the price would lead you to believe because they work very hard to design things economically.

It’s also engineered incredibly well. There are no weak points or flaws in the design. It feels like someone poured their heart and soul in to producing the absolute strongest and most practical item possible given the budget.

Found IKEA's CEO everybody.

Please tell me you’re not still talking about IKEA.

I am. So many other companies products seem to have one weak spot that completely ruins an otherwise strong design. Meanwhile ikea stuff seems perfectly designed for the material budget.

This chair for example is way stronger than it has any right to be. I’ve seen it used in a ton of cafes so it clearly holds up to heavy usage https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/taernoe-chair-outdoor-foldable-...

The look and price feels like it should be a flimsy piece of junk but in reality it’s incredibly solid.

God no, it's awful. At least 50% too small in all dimensions. It's a chair that deliberately ignores that someone larger than 160cm 50kg girl might sit on it.

I mean, it depends what you mean by ‘real quality’; you’re not going to get hand-crafted expertly made stuff that will last for centuries or anything. But for the price, their mid to high end stuff is excellent.

Yeah, I have a couple of Ikea chairs in a room that replaced (cheap) wicker that was falling apart. They haven't been used hard but, to me, they were pretty inexpensive, look good, and are very comfortable.

On the other hand, I bought a dresser with a lot of particle board and, no, it's by no means well made. But it's in a bedroom and it works. I could have spent 4x (or more) for a nicely made hardwood dresser from a good New England brand. But even getting it into the bedroom upstairs might have been a bit of an adventure.

I don't mean anything like artisan or hand-crafted. I mean well-built, out of quality materials. A good quality table, for instance, should last decades.

I think a lot of their solid wood stuff (it’s not all chipboard!) would fit the bill, tbh. You do have to be slightly careful with the assembly (it’s not difficult, but some people like to treat the instructions as suggestions, and then get annoyed when it falls apart…)

I'm writing this comment sitting at a basic IKEA particleboard desk that I've had since 2014. It has survived daily usage for 10 years and 2 moves (one coast-to-coast). The only signs of wear is some scuffed paint where the hands rest in front of the keyboard and veneer is starting to peel slightly in one the corner.

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