Who doesn't know IKEA?! So I'm gonna keep this "short".
It's fun to joke about IKEA and say that it's a Swedish puzzle company. Or to say that they only have "cheap crap". But I think that's a bit unfair. We shouldn't take IKEA for granted. If you finally graduated and you make a decent amount of money and you want to spend money on better furniture, that's fine. But until that point you've probably lived your life with mostly IKEA "crap". I think that's worth some gratitude. And let's be honest. If you think that the DIY instructions are incomprehensible, than frankly, with all due respect, you're a friggin moron and you shouldn't be allowed any farther than Småland when entering IKEA.
I'm still (and again) a student so I love IKEA. The instructions are much, MUCH clearer than DIY products from other companies, sometimes by leaps and bounds. It's ridiculously easy to assemble IKEA products.
The engineered wood is of greater quality than most, if not all, other DIY furniture shops such as Leenbakker etc. It's thicker, and the pre drilled holes are of better quality and not flaky/crumbly. Of course they have real wood products too but I guess most people don't think of IKEA when considering genuine wooden furniture.
They have something for everyone's budget.
The only thing that is truly horrid about IKEA is their delivery service! Don't fall for it! It's expensive! Unnecessarily so! You're better off renting your own van or truck if you're planning on buying a lot.
Here's a few things I recently bought from IKEA for relatively cheap, with which I'm a 100% happy!!! Blackout curtains "plug and play" :P. 100% cotton sheets, duvet covers and pillow cases. 100% cotton (with polyester fillings) summer blanket (technically it's a spread), down/feather pillows (best I've ever had and I've had €100+ pillows), a melamine coated dining table which I use as a desk, a €2.50 teflon skillet which works surprisingly well!, whiteboard etc.
Anyway. Just wanted to set some things straight that certain other ungrateful people wrote about IKEA after many years of benefiting from its products :) read more