Should you buy furniture from Ikea?

Practically everyone in Singapore has been to Ikea before, and my kids love going there. In fact, when I go to Ikea at dinner time, I even have to line up and wait for seats…and this is not even a weekend! Talk about a major family attraction…

I think the success of Ikea is truly phenomenal, and nearly everyone I know, has got some form of furniture from this Swedish Megastore.

As you probably know by now, I have been redecorating my new place, and dealing with things like wall collages.

Upon checking my finances, I decided to save a few bucks, and I got some of my furniture from Ikea.

With such innovative budget Swedish designs,and easy to assembly furniture, I thought that I could NOT go wrong with Ikea…but Boy…was I disappointed…

I paid for their infamous “Billy” bookshelves, and after just 2 weeks, the shelves started “sagging” in the middle.

Imagine walking into the study just 2 weeks after assembling these bookshelves, and realizing that the shelves were “sagging”. I think you can see it most obviously on the top left hand shelf, where there is a painting on the shelve… At $169 per bookshelf, I think that are a real disappointment

Feeling that they had great looking study tables for rooms which are spatially challenged. I bought a “Micke” study desk from them as well.

Although it is less obvious from this photo, but believe me when I tell you that, the table top is “sagging” in the middle. Although I did not put anything in the middle of the table, and I left my computer monitor at the ends of the table, the table just sagged!

Personally I think that it is a design flaw, as the table is only supported by the legs on both ends.

At $99, it may be cheap…but it only lasted 3 weeks…

Have I thought about returning these items?

I think I may be able to return them, although I have not technically tried. However, after assembly, these items are just too big to put into an MPV, and I probably need to dismantle them. My wife reckons that it is not worth the hassle, and I might as well, use them, until they are truly “kaput”!

Sigh…so much for Ikea…Do you guys have a similar experience with their furniture?

12 Responses to "Should you buy furniture from Ikea?"

Shimin says:

October 22, 2011 at 7:20 pm

Yes! I have that desk too! And it’s sagging so badly that it looks like it’s going to break anytime! It’s really dangerous especially with young kids at home… My parents are planning to dispose it soon..

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James Soh says:

October 23, 2011 at 4:39 am

Hey Ed,

Some of IKEA’s furniture do peel and sag, I have some of those.

But I’ve bought a couple (mainly workdesk) that are extremely sturdy and still in good shape even after 5 years of use.

But those are typically more expensive and they have proper reinforcements … double metal support beams across the bottom of the desk.

I think you can take it apart and do a refund but they will deduct a restocking fee. But the tough part is the transportation!! 😀

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Elaine says:

October 24, 2011 at 7:36 am

Yes! My husband had a billy bookshelf that was sagging badly when we were dating. So when stocking our new home, I made it a point to look closely at the labels when buying from Ikea and selected only those items made from solid wood, not plywood. My bookshelves have not started to sag (yet). That said, the billy still lasted many years and never “kaput”. I just couldn’t stand the look of it and made the husband throw it out.

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Kenneth says:

October 24, 2011 at 11:45 am

Gee, thanks. Was just about to buy the billy when i read this post. Helpful indeed. Guess can only buy small plastic stuff from IKEA then. Their disposable items are not bad too, anything more, will not be that wise.

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Johnson says:

October 26, 2011 at 4:38 am

This ikea sounds like only got good food to eat, the furnite nice to see, but not nice to eat leh

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Joanna says:

October 26, 2011 at 6:33 am

We have Billy bookshelves at home BUT we knew that we were gonna use it for books (heavy!) so we bought the thinner version… singles not doubles. Cost a little more but our bookselves are going strong after five years and fully loaded with books. Actually they’re overflowing! Our contractor actually suggested Billy when we approached him to build custom shelves. He said the singles were good as long as you d

So I think when buying from Ikea, you gotta think about the usage before getting. Compressed wood can only take so much weight…

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NerdyMum says:

November 6, 2011 at 2:22 pm

@Joanna: I don’t understand. thinner version is studier?
and if you ever see this comment, what do you mean by singles not doubles?

Anyway I found my older Ikea shelves are still in shape while the newer ones are “growing old”

@Ed: I think if you have assembled them, you cannot refund. (altho I’m not 100% sure) but you can feedback and I’m sure they would do something about it somehow.

I’m using their cheapest table ever. No-frills. One piece of wood supported by 4 legs (all sold separately). No drawers and doesn’t look like it will ever sag. Actually it works great as a kitchen prep top too!

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1. Pyewacket says:
  
  December 14, 2017 at 10:37 pm
  
  Try the Ingo table for a desk – it is solid wood. Also consider using Rast chest of drawers for supports instead of the regular table legs that come with that – they are a little short for a desk but you could raise it by putting feet on the bottoms of the dressers. Thus you have drawers with your desk.
  
  It isn’t plywood that is the problem. I have decades old bookshelves made of 3/4″ plywood with a nice veneer facing. It is MDF (medium density fiberboard) and particle board that are the problem. AVOID anything made of either substance. There ARE better quality manufactured “wood” products out there but they cost more so they aren’t used for furniture applications, where the whole point of going to MDF and particle board is to Save Money. But as you discovered, you don’t really save a red cent with such cheap faux-furniture.
  
  Ikea used to be more concerned about quality and had lots of solid wood products. But they are increasingly offering the same MDF/particle board crap you can already buy everywhere from Walmart to Big Box hardware/lumber stores. Why pay a premium price for crap? Most recently they stopped offering the solid beech (or birch, I forget) countertop and have WITHOUT RENAMING IT gone to a veneer over MDF product instead – which pretty much makes it useless for any normal countertop purpose because you can’t cut it at will as you can a solid countertop. I would MUCH rather have had the price on that product go up than see it turned into yet more saggy junk.
  
  I have also noticed that they removed the option to show only solid wood products from the website. That’s not a choice any more.
  
  A lot of their stuff – think KALLAX – isn’t even MDF. It’s a hollow paper-stuffed product. A whole lot of people who put casters on their KALLAX stuff are going to be sadly disappointed when they sit down on the “bench” they think they hacked and it all collapses when the legs break through the sidewalls.
  
  Reply
2. Pyewacket says:
  
  December 14, 2017 at 10:42 pm
  
  Dratnabbit, I forgot to answer the question about “thin” bookcases – he meant the narrower shelving units. The less the MDF shelves have to span (eg the shorter they are) they less likely they are to sag. If you HAVE to go with such crap shelves, if you get the narrowest possible units, they will have the shortest shelves and any sagging will be less obvious.
  
  Or you can do the smart thing and go with the Hemnes solid wood shelves. Sure they cost 10s of dollars more – but you don’t get what you don’t pay for.
  
  Reply
Candice says:

December 12, 2012 at 8:06 pm

I bought the same Micke desk last year June and they were visibly “saggy” within a few weeks. I was like you, it was way too big to be carried back to the store for a return so I stuck with it. It’s gotten so bad to the point that I can easily see that my computer screens on the desk are not straight. Have you found any solutions? I’m so disappointed with this desk sigh.

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1. edunloaded says:
  
  December 15, 2012 at 11:12 am
  
  After 1 week of pondering, I finally brought it back, and they gave me a refund, as I had the receipts. If u have an MPV, that might be the best option!
  
  Reply
David Coleman says:

October 10, 2020 at 2:58 am

I have bought flat pack furniture for decades and I have always had to do a bit of “improvement” – I’ve had wardrobes that lean and chests of draws that bulge to the point of falling apart! – I have just returned from Ikea and I will be modifying some Kallax units for my living room – I will be using old ikea wardrobes to add strength to the overall structure of the units and changing the look of them a little – basically it’s cheap furniture for a reason, none of it is engineered for heavy use – if you want it to last a lot longer then think of ways you can add strength to the structure. instead of relying completely of that 5mm thick hardboard to keep your 7′ tall wardrobe square try cutting a piece of plywood to fit it at the bottom and attaching it to the wardrobe properly and not relying on the cheap laminated chipboard to take that kind of pressure – its cheap and it looks good but if you want it to last just spend a little money and time making it fit for use!

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