Why no more IKEA, Tom?

All my IKEA furniture is falling apart, or permanently scarred by minor bumps. I just want something a little more solid.

I'm tired of furniture I have to put together myself. Most of the IKEA stuff I've bought seemed like a good idea at the time, but less with the love as time goes by.

My current apartment has one IKEA piece, a few Target pieces (but one broke so annoyingly that I'm not bothering to go back) and stuff from Cost Plus World Market. I like the World Market stuff. It's nice and heavy, and really really simple to put together. Though I still don't like doing that.

I only have 4 actual pieces of furniture from IKEA (wall shelf, shelf unit, tv stand and my dining room table.) I usually go there for odds and ends like rugs, a teapot, frames or whatever. I got a set of blue glass dishes and bowls there that I like.

The World Market stuff looks nice. Hasn't made it to this part of the world yet, unfortunately.

I've never had a piece of IKEA furniture last more than a year. I've had enough people tell me "But my IKEA couch has lasted 15 years!" to suspect that 15 years ago, they were making much sturdier furniture.

Plush Passover plagues! Too cute.

We have a World Market ottoman which is fabulous. Also in a zeitgeisty kind of way, we are going to IKEA tonight....for dinner. Hey, it's close and I love them crazy meatballs.

We have the old white Billy bookcases that are about fourteen years old (a bit discolored, but still standing) and a small white dresser we got for Jake's nursery that has survived all three kids. One of the coffee tables was destroyed early on -- it had to be the softest pine ever, because Jake running his Matchbox cars on top of it made dents.

I like the odds and ends at IKEA best, though. Oh, and we got a duvet cover there that rocks.

I adore my IKEA shelves. It's all about "you get what you pay for" there. They have some stuff that's really cheap and relatively crappy, and some stuff that's less cheap and much less crappy.

I have to admit, my perusal of IKEA bookcases was such that I wasn't tempted at all, despite the rattiness of my existing bookcases. They just didn't look -- permanent. Target and Kmart bookcases are the same way; maybe I'll just make my own some day.

I do have an IKEA chair, because it was cheap and cute and I needed another chair. I'm not sold on the sturdiness of it, however, and in general I think you have to look carefully to avoid stuff that looks like plastic. (I went for a darker color, to avoid the "blond laminate" look -- it's probably still laminate, but it doesn't look as fake.)

My general understanding of furniture is, if you want real, sturdy, worthwhile stuff, buy antiques from the 1950s or earlier. (For not-zillionaire values of "antique".) It'll end up being about the same price as new, and will last a lot longer.

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Try not to laugh.

My dining room table is nice. The shelving unit is kinda crappy, but eh, I'll replace it eventually.