to ask if there is anyone out there with a totally IKEA free house?

[beluga425]

The other day DD asked me if the Queen shops at IKEA.
I'm sitting at and IKEA desk drinking from IKEA glasses. everything's bloody IKEA.
Is there anyone who has NO IKEA at all?
No I don't work for them!

No Ikea here.

Weren't the Malm drawers the ones that killed kids by falling over? Always had them in student rentals back in the day.

The Malm drawers falling over were due to people ignoring the instructions to anchor them to the wall.

No IKEA here either!

Most of our furniture and things like pans, cutlery, tablecloths, glassware etc have been inherited.

Most new things such as bedding, cushions etc are from John Lewis. (I really love John Lewis!)

Nothing Ikea in my house, I tried to buy a bread knife in there when I was 18 and they refused to sell them to me as I was under 21. So I told them where to stick everything and haven't been back since

My parents, because they are sniffy about Ikea.
Their place is an ugly mismatch of bargain finds and old, heavy furniture that is uncomfortable to use.

We've just had to furnish our whole house and apart from beds and the build your own sofa everything is from ikea. In fact DH is there just now collecting more!
We're renting, hopefully not for too long, and I wasn't spending more money on stuff that may not fit and if it does we can just add to it if we have bigger rooms.
It's decent enough quality for the money and easy to assemble. What's not to love?

Only ever been once and didn’t buy anything. Nearest one is miles away.

Our study is kitted out with Billy shelving, floor to ceiling. Our laundry room has the metal railed shelving (can't remember the name) and a couple of wall-mounted drying racks and we have lots of the smaller stuff (eg cushions, plant pot holders, drinking glasses, face cloths, lighting) elsewhere in the house. We buy our serious furniture elsewhere, but IKEA stuff is good value for what it is in my view. Until a few years ago our nearest store was an awkward drive into Greater London which I hated, so visits were a rare treat, but then a new store was built just 45 minutes drive down the M3 and about a year ago another new store was built 30 minutes drive away across country. We enjoy visiting the stores despite the unruly children you have to negotiate and, being retired, we can nip over to the new store during the week and have a fairly relaxed tour round the showroom and shop in the basement bit. There’s no doubt that proximity of a store determines how much IKEA stuff will be in your house.

superloudpoppingaction if your anywhere near glasgow when i went to ikea to visit i got the mgills bus from buchanan bus station that stops at braehead and crossed over the road

Well technically we aren't an IKEA free house but all the furniture in this house belongs to us and none of it is from IKEA. Apart from 2 items which belong to the landlord which is 1 wardrobe and the kitchen units & oven are from IKEA.

Just the kids mattresses. Everything in our house is gumtree or the like. Bloody love it!

I don't have anything from IKEA. If I had one near me I probably would. As it is, the nearest one is far away with bridge tolls etc to negotiate, so it would cost more to get there and back than the savings.

Yes, me.

I lived close to where the first UK Ikea was opened.
I remember the traffic jams it used to create every weekend.
A queue for an hour was not uncommon as people travelled from everywhere until they built more. And the tills!!! Oh my god the tills. There were numerous times my parents ditched whatever they planned to buy to escape rather than face that queue.
It was horrendous.

THIRTY YEARS OF IKEA.
There was no hope for me.

I saved my pocket money to buy ikea furniture as a teenager (yes really) and I still have those shelves twenty five years later. That's depressing realising how old they are!

In my last house everything was ikea incl the kitchen but in this house we're trying to phase the furniture out as it's such shit quality but it's still full of textiles, home wares and endless candles. Work 10 min for ikea wednesbury so to be excused.

I’ve got some Ikea bits and bobs (kitchen utensils, vases etc.) but no furniture as DH can’t put flat pack stuff together and I don’t fancy getting divorced by attempting it.

Bloody hate IKEA. We’ve had a gift card for £100 for about 2 years now. Every so often we will go wander round and remember why we hate it. We seem to buy stuff each time (oil for wood work surface, kids toys, NOT furniture which I don’t like) but we still have about £70 on it! It’s impossible to spend!

RedToothBrush

'Our' Ikea is about 20 years old and I too remember the traffic jams when it first opened. Made much worse by a lorry that had the indecency to flip over on the slip road off the motorway that led there.

I still have some of the things that I bought then - they were heavily reduced - glasses and pasta bowls for 50 pence a set, that sort of thing.

I was thinking I was Ikea-free - having been known as "Woman at Ikea" (like "Man at C&A") in my single days - but then I remembered the cheese grater. And the bedside cabinets. And the spare bed. And the cat bowls. And the floor lamp. Bollocks.

I’ve never in been inside an ikea let alone bought anything from there 😂

I've never been to Ikea - so, my house is an Ikea free zone!

I shopped so much in IKEA that I ended up working there (popped in for breakfast with baby DD and they were doing open interviews - 13 years later I'm still there)

Staff discount means I rarely buy from anywhere else. My flat definitely doesn't look like an IKEA showroom though. I tend to mix things up in a way our design people aren't allowed to in store and I don't think I own anything that's pale or beech or particularly scandinavian.

The 'IKEA effect' is a lovely thing. People care more and have pride in furniture that they've sweated over and built themselves. It has more personality and meaning.

Bought an office chair 15 years ago which soon collapsed. What’s the point?

I googled it. My nearest store is 152km away. I've never been.

I cannot imagine ever driving 152km to a shop for anything.

(And I'm slightly irritated that it wasn't in miles. I'm not even sure how far away 152km is...but it sounds a long way.)

blessyourcottonsocks its 94 miles :)