My IKEA snobbery knows no bounds. The prejudice was brought home to me this morning while surfing Craigslist and clicking through on an ad for the potentially cool lounge chair above ($150); the second I saw it was from IKEA I said, “no thanks”. Nevermind that I’m in the market for a decent lounge chair or that this one happens to reference one of my all-time-favorite designs, the Zurich Leisure chair. My kneejerk reaction is if it’s from IKEA, pass.
I’m not sure where my bigotry comes from. Maybe it’s the fact that so much IKEA shows up on Craigslist — I’m convinced that CL is where IKEA goes to die. For the sake of this post I did something I’ve never done before, I searched Craigslist using the keyword “IKEA”. OMG, such junk! Page after page of unattractive furnishings. I know IKEA has upped the design quotient in recent years but honestly, most of the IKEA stuff on Craigslist is such crap.
I think one of the reasons I enjoyed Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Cheap so much was because she devoted an entire chapter to dumping on IKEA. I know there are thousands, make that millions of people out there who love this Swedish gargantuan, who eagerly await each new catalogue and who cherish the idea of an afternoon spent zigzagging through one of the chain’s big blue boxes. Me? I get shivers.
And then I see a CL ad for IKEA chairs like those above ($225 each), and I think, hey, maybe IKEA’s not so bad, maybe I could live with one or two pieces. But then I realize that if I bought these chairs I’d have to admit where they came from and, well, I’m just too big a snob for that.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I’ll never understand the North American penchant for what is basically taking pride in ones own short comings. So you admit that you make a poor ignorant decision but want to shout to the world that “that’s how it is so I’m not changing”?
How cool you must feel when you settle in to your overpriced furniture.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Color me Snob, IKEA is cheap furniture. It is made badly and the most seen on garbage day as broken and almost new.
Ikea is NOT cheap on price, they charge a large price. Me, I’d rather settle in for quality. I just finished renovating a house *one of many* and I could have settled for laminate, at a l/4 of the price, instead of the 4″ oak floors I went for. Quality is ALWAYS a good investment. Period
December 5th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
you may not want to admit it, but it’s probably because you want to keep “real” design out of the hands of the “masses.” it weakens, dilutes, and invalidates your sense of good taste and self-worth. “i can afford great design, and recognize it” … but wait, now EVERYONE can get pieces that look designer?
i understand the quality thing and that’s an OK argument, but some ikea pieces are actually fairly sturdy.
December 5th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
We all have our prejudices, and so long as no one gets hurt, then what’s the harm. It’s human to have likes and dislikes and not all our choices can be based on logic or rational. We are emotional creatures and sometimes it’s hard to get rid of our preconceived notions.
I bought IKEA straight out of university because it was inexpensive and functional. Over the years I have purged most of it as my budget increased and my personal tastes matured. I still however have kept a few functional storage pieces because they work so well, and like most IKEA pieces are non-offensive and easy to blend into the background.
I must admit that Ikea is great for basic items like mirrors and kitchen accessories. The fact that 1.5 million people may have the same glass tumblers as me, well … I don’t think about it.
The funniest thing about Ikea items listed on Craigslist is that the sellers actually think the furniture has value and try to sell it for way, way too much!
December 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
the “real canadians decorating” moniker is getting further and further from the truth the more this website matures.
December 6th, 2009 at 8:20 am
The other day I was in Walmart and saw a cute little bench with baskets in it. I stopped and thought that just might work in our guest room…Walmart! I couldn’t do it.
This is me shouting to the world, “I’m a Walmart snob!”
We all have our limits.
P.S. I love Ikea. They’re masters at merchandising and I don’t think that you can ever go wrong with their simple and clean designs but, with that said, I’d be pretty disappointed if I went to an estate sale it was full of Ikea stuff (lol).
December 6th, 2009 at 10:27 am
I’m not sure if you’re being ironic but isn’t one of your “all-time favourite designs” just a knock-off (including the rest of the chairs on that website) of the Metropolitan chair by Jeffrey Bernett?
December 6th, 2009 at 11:44 am
rt,
Not ironic, just ignorant. I actually didn’t know the originator of this chair and the only one I’ve tracked down was described as the Zurich Chair so that’s what I thought it was. Thanks for setting me straight.
December 7th, 2009 at 12:27 am
..and there you have it
December 7th, 2009 at 1:37 am
We all have to draw a line somewhere, and it looks like there are plenty of opinions about where you’ve drawn yours. I won’t be passing any judgment because I have plenty of preference pecadillos myself.
We don’t have an Ikea here so I can’t speak to it specifically, but I do enjoy Hand Made magazine’s monthly contest where they choose something from Ikea and the readers remake it into something else.
December 7th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Correction: Readymade magazine. I need to go to bed.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Ikea is an interesting dilemma. I hate it too but find myself shopping there more than I’d like to admit. Definitely, we’d all love to “invest” in pieces that we’ll love forever but this can be a very major investment. I checked out the Elte sale and while 30% is a great discount, I still couldn’t afford the $4k light fixture or $5k sofa. Design Within Reach–whose reach is that marble topped Saarinen table within? Not mine. Used furniture is great but how often have you come home with a great piece that isn’t quite the right size or colour and then you feel worse about the bargain that suddenly isn’t a bargain? Alas, won’t someone pls. sell beautiful furnishings that the rest of us–no, most of us–can afford without re-mortgaging the house?
December 11th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Some IKEA products are cheaply made & fall apart. Many are well-made items in the moderate budget range & last quite nicely. (Funny, I find that’s true of many products. The high-end name with the prices to match - some of that is over-prioed crap, too. I walked into the home of a successful clothing designer who also does interiors. His place had beautiful vintage items as well as some real designer gems he’d sourced from places he works. In the living room he had a multi-coloured wool carpet that looked whimsical & smart at the same time. Where’s the rug from, I asked. “IKEA,” he said with a laugh. “Isn’t it great?” He clearly doesn’t have a hang-up about mixing vintage with designer with IKEA. Reminds me of the wine snobs who won’t buy the Argentinian wine Fuzion now because everyone knows it’s the bargain “recession red.” Not everyone would like it — it’s a fruit bomb, just as many Australian shiraz’s are at three or four times the price — but that’s different from being too embarassed to serve it to your friends.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I recently went through this dilemna when it came to picking out kitchen cabinets. My gut told me to go custom but when I did my research, I discovered that it didn’t really impact resale value. I spoke with both a real estate agent and a contractor - they both told me that this kind of choice is personal and that the Ikea line of kitchen cupboards is actually really good quality. According to them, what is most important in value (for Ottawa at least), is age! The older the cabinets, the worse the resale value. It didn’t matter if they were solid oak or melamine.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Ginger,
I’ve never renovated a kitchen but I would definitely consider IKEA for that purpose. If they’re good enough for Sarah Richardson, they’re good enough for me. It’s the furniture I can’t abide.
And I don’t know why so many of you seem to think that my distaste is related to inexpensive prices — anybody who’s spent any time on styleNorth knows I’m an irrepressible junk hound who’s always trying to squeeze a little extra bang out of my buck. But I also insist on unique style and that’s not the business IKEA is in. I have friends, very good friends, who adore IKEA and I don’t hold it against them. Just as I hope you won’t hold this one little prejudice of mine against me.