Sunday, March 2, 2014

Shopping at IKEA

In the last period, one of the ever-growing number of tasks on my list was to fill the empty space in my apartment with furniture, decorations and all things that a house might require.
Like any other consumer demand, there are quite a lot of big and small companies coming to satisfy this demand. The most popular, as you know, is IKEA.

So, how was it for me shopping at IKEA?


Well, they have their ups and downs. Lets start with the ups.

IKEA'S PROS:

 

1. IKEA is big

I went to two IKEA stores in my life: somewhere near Stockholm, and in Bucharest.
It is quite nice when you have all the things you need in one place. You don't really have to go from one store to another to get all the things you want; all are there.

2. IKEA has a great on-line kitchen configurator

I never found a better kitchen configurator as the one IKEA has. It offers you the possibility to create the 3D plan of your kitchen and play with all the configurations possible. I think that we decided after 5, or 6 tries. So it's quite nice to see your kitchen done before you pay anything.

3. IKEA's interior decorations

 IKEA is very good at interior decorations, you can find in their stores a huge variety of all the stuff you would want, and more.

4. Bedroom closets

One of the things I liked at IKEA when I had to buy a bedroom closet was the fact that they offered a huge flexibility when it came to closet compartments. For me it is quite important to maximize the used space in a closet.

IKEA's CONS


1. Pour quality

The quality of IKEA's products is not that great. You get the feeling of a cheep product, especially at the beds and couches. All seams to be made out of plastic, or very pour quality plywood. The mattresses are the type that will not last you for more then an year. The tables are very fragile, easily scratchable, and the colours and not that great.  Not all are bad, but if you are looking for high quality, look somewhere else.

2. Big furniture prices

 When it comes to big furniture like a kitchen, IKEA is not as cheep as they are promoting themselves to be. They have individual prices for all the small articles, but when you sum all up you will not get a small bill. So be careful and see what other options there are for you out there.

3. Size customization

You do have some options for sizes at IKEA but the variety is quite small. I felt this the most at my kitchen. I could only choose between 60cm or 45cm width of cabinets, 60cm or 90cm for hight, and so on. Sometimes your kitchen might require some customization which they do not offer.

CONCLUSION

If you want to finish your house fast and do not really care about quality then IKEA is the best place for you.

However, if you do care about quality then I suggest to look somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, you can find good things in IKEA, I was quite pleased with the kitchen, but I would never buy a bedroom furniture from them.

For me the alternative where the small furniture companies who are going all the way for their customers. Most of them will create custom furniture at the dimensions, shape and colours your desire. The prices are coomparable with IKEA but the quality is much better.

That's it for know!
Hope you found this information useful and, as always, keep your finances under control with Troosby!