Anonymous wrote:^^ The food is really that good?

Np. I love their salmon. Vacuum packed so it keeps forever in the freezer, but still tastes good. And the blueberry concentrate. Tablespoon or two in a glass of seltzer and it's a delicious low-sugar soda.

IKEA's sisal rugs are cheap and wear like iron. I'm surprisingly pleased by their highest thread count cotton sheets. I bought them because I needed some in a hurry for my son, but they're actually really nice and I might consider them for our bed.

Kitchen organizers. Love the Lucite Tobias chairs, so comfy. My kid's low loft bed (kura). Storage bins. Sheer curtains.

Oh, and I bought their cheap-ass $399 bonded leather sofa (Sater) to tide us over until we could get a $2500 Restoration Hardware leather sofa. Well, we like this thing so damn much we're going to keep it until the kid gets bigger and less destructive. It looks like new two years later and wipes clean and is so comfortable. I did swap out the legs for some plain midcentury modern cherry (the originals were chrome) and it looks pretty nice. Sorry, Restoration Hardware!

Quite a bit of our house is IKEA. I'd say 80% of our furniture is from there. We have an IKEA kitchen. My husband just did a built in desk/bookcase wall in our den using Billy bookshelves for our daughter. I think our daughter's room (oddly enough) is the only room without any IKEA furniture in it.

I have had tons of Ikea over the years and I can say that the quality has really improved. I had living room pieces for years that people never guessed were from Ikea. The pieces had a more traditional styling and held up very well through lots of moves.

Anonymous wrote:If they still sell the gallon size glass jars (for flour and sugar), grab some! For some reason, they are the only brand that has a rubber seal around the lid to keep out bugs and secure the top.

(And if you do go and they do have them and if you remember, would you mind posting back to let me know to save me a wasted trip? I broke one and need to replace it but don't want to drive there for that one thing just to find out they don't have it. TIA if you remember!)

They have an inventory checker on their website.

I have a house full of Ikea. I love love love our solid latex mattress. Also love our Abstrakt kitchen cabinets and Besta storage in the dining room and living room. We have that same eight-cubby shelf as every other household containing a small child. Love our Gulliver crib. Malm dressers have held up surprisingly well through moves.
Things that have not held up well: we have one of their cheaper couches and the leather is not doing well at all. I had their ceramic dinnerware in grad school and while it performed just fine, I was glad to upgrade to lighter white porcelain plates a few years later. Our dining chairs got wobbly and we had to reinforce them with brackets - although, to be fair, these are Ikea's very cheapest wooden dining chairs ($20) and they had been in use for nine years before getting wobbly. I hate the white laminate furniture. And I am mad they aren't making the Malm bed I want in the finish I need to match my dressers

I like their curtains and pillows. Very cheap. I just bought a duvet set very cheap (on sale) there. The all cotton velvet curtains are very nice, extraordinarily cheap. I think they are made in China or India, but they look much more expensive than they are. I bought a box spring for a twin bed that I use as a daybed. I also like Hemnes, which is mostly all wood (pine). Lots of style for very low prices, but you must put the furniture together yourself. I also got some nice hemp rugs for very little. Not the highest quality, but still the prices can't be beat for the style.

IN general, for the prices IKEA offers a lot of style (or at least a type of style not seen in other stores) and about average quality. Haven't gone wrong yet taking that approach.

Anonymous wrote:Rugs, pillows, curtains can be very cute and cheap. I also love their bookcases because you can find them very narrow there or very big. Great assortment. I buy Hermes for more traditional and then the more basic one (can't remember the line name) for the basement.

They are always good for weird storage pieces. I wanted a cart that was low enough I could set my kids dollhouse on, that had storage underneath (for extra doll furniture) and the rolled so they could bring it out into a better spot when they wanted to play. Couldn't find it anywhere. Ikeas.

Also - buy box springs for the kids beds there as they are relatively healthy though not full on organic.

LOL I think you mean Hemnes.