To wonder if it's all crap?

[TheDamnedTruth]

Ikea furniture...

Is it really just crap?

Looking for baby furniture so it really needs to be absolutely solid.

Which, loads of replies! Thanks everyone. I'm a bit on the cautious side with furniture!

Don’t know about specifically nursery furniture but our £180 bed is beautiful and v sturdy. As is our big desk and bureau. I’d go in store to feel things first as some can be flimsy. But much of it is v good quality for a reasonable price, they won’t be heirlooms but should do 5-10 years if a good piece.

We bought an Ikea cot. It's amazing. It's been used for over two years and we have just swapped it for a bed. I'm not kidding it's like new still, very solid. It was the dearest one they sold though so maybe the cheaper ones would not be a good. Their babies high chair is also brilliant

I think it completely depends - you can get super cheap mdf stuff at Ikea or you can get solid wood stuff at Ikea - there is a huge range. I personally wouldn't want an entire house furnished by Ikea but I've had quite a few bits from there and been very happy. Our bed is from Ikea and is very solid.

Some of it is crap and lasts five minutes, or at least it looks ropey and chipped/scratched within a year or two, even if it's still holding together.

Other things are fantastic quality and as good as anything else you'll find for twice the price or more.

It's a question of having realistic expectations given what you are paying, I think. The very cheap IKEA stuff is pretty flimsy and good for a three years at best. The more expensive items are usually excellent value for money and will last donkey's years. We've got some things that are still going strong since we bought them in the mid 90's and won't ever fall apart. We'll end up chucking them because we are sick of the sight of them, I think.

Do you really want furniture to last forever? Your Grannie possibly did and look at their houses. People get stuck for years with the furniture and decor that was fashionable when they started out. Be warned as your Grandchildren will think the same about your house as you think about your grannies ( unless you are the Queen) actually the interior colours of Buckingham Palace are pretty hideous as the Queen doesn't care. I bet the Cambridges' House looks lovely now. I bet it's all grey as grey is in.
Household Items/ colours/ kitchens go out of Fashion in about 10/15 years. If you have paid £2,000/3000 for a sofa you will have to think twice about replacing it.
Also houses shouldn't be shrines that make everyone in them feel miserable. Just because you paid £100 for a lamp, kids won't care. Kids will wreck your home unless you nag them. Mine played Rugby in my sitting room and broke a lamp shade. They glued it together and stuck it back.
I think while your children are very young a home should be cheap and cheerful and practical. Laminate floors and rugs that can be washed. It can still look good.
Newly married, and poorish, I bought everything but our bed second hand, at auctions and made curtains and painted everything.
Get the nice, expensive stuff when they are older.
I know lots of people who plump up cushions as I get up from their precious sofas. Who wants ' she kept her expensive house spotless and dust free' written on a tombe stone? I would rather have 'Fun Grannie' written on mine.
Ikea is great, cheap and cheerful. Don't be real wood snobs.

Do you really want furniture to last forever?
Some of them, yes. I have a mix of Ikea, and various and antic pieces from family and I do love them. Not everybody wants a house that looks like page 58 of the Ikea catalogue. Not everybody is grey either, is that still going? It looks already dated!

Don't be real wood snobs

I'm one of those real wood snobs you mention but at the same time I also subscribe to your easy, cheap and practical philosophy. But cheap crap is ultimately more expensive (because it needs replacing) and wasteful.
I buy most wood things second hand, often painting them to improve, update, trendify them. My best buy was a huge oak medieval looking sideboard thing. Gets lots of compliments. Cost £50 on Gumtree.

New, expensive 'real' stuff? Not so much. My DC were barely allowed to move inside MILs dated house.

I like the idea of antic furniture. Sofas that double up as trampolines, shelves that are also climing frames perhaps?