I like Ikea, but most my furniture is from other stores. I have a few Expedit (I think they have a new name now) shelves and find them extremely practical. I like buying small stuff there, though, decoration items really, vases, plants, candles.

My taste changes all the time, so it makes no sense for me to buy really expensive furniture. The most expensive thing I have is my couch and I don't even remember where I bought it

My brother has the Pax cupboard and it's survived three or four moves so far. Not everything from Ikea is bad and falling apart after half a year. If you want actual high-quality stuff, it's safe to assume it has to be specially made - whether you shop at Ikea, Conforama, Micasa or even some of Pfister and Interio probably doesn't make much difference (other than on the price tag).

That all being said, if I go to Ikea, I NEVER EVER EVER EVER go on a Saturday. I go on a weekday after 7:30 pm Hardly any people around. Saturday is suicide. Then again Saturday is suicide for shopping anywhere here. I often only take the shortcut to Markthalle (as I usually know exactly what I want to buy), and am out within 20mins. I admit though, I too sometimes go in, wanting to buy only a few plants, and I come out with 15 other things that I really didn't need

If you like it buy it. same with clothes... You like you buy
Names do not mean anything... Well apart from mine ;-)

Well I always get around ikea on the trottinet: Much easier on the feet

To get the real Ikea feeling go there on Saturdays around lunchtime :-). Endless queues for the famous meatballs, at the parking, at the playground for kids and did I mention for the meatballs? But dont we all have a little bit of Ikea spirit in us :-). And for those too stressed after shopping dont forget: there is still the famous playground corner filled with thousands of balls. Just dive in with your kids and relax.

Better still, along with the pencil, order paper, and yellow bag, they could provide one of these

Well its sad that the parents don't find anything more creative to do with their children as to spend valued fee time in Ikea.( usually buying junk they dont need ). But thats the sickness of the consumerist mentality.

Same here, except that apart from the dining table plus chairs, sofas and a coffee table every piece of furniture we have is from Ikea. I wanted a different table because frankly I couldn't find anything like what we have now in Ikea. Perhaps in other more expensive shops, but then again it was much cheaper to buy it in Germany!
What can I say, Ikea saved me in a few situations. When I wanted to renovate my house back home I don't know what I would have done without Ikea.. There were a few alternatives but frankly I didn't have the time nor the money to even consider them, my budget wasn't that large.
Anyway, apart from plants and decoration items I also buy towels, beddings, glasses etc. One of my friends was actually surprised they have such nice bed linens...
I know people who avoid Ikea at all costs but I'm not one of them. Too practical not to like it..IMO.

I beg your pardon? We live a long way from Ikea these days, so my kids haven't been yet. But it's got a playground, and a wipe-clean restaurant, and the families I used to see there looked like they were having a blast. I bet mine would too.

Do you feel all playgrounds and restaurants are an uncreative waste of family time? Or are the Ikea ones somehow less worthy than other playgrounds and restaurants simply because they're attached to a furniture store?


For that matter why shouldn't a furniture store itself be fascinating, seen through the eyes of a small child?

Think about it - the first thing you see when you walk in is a room full of beds, beds and nightstands everywhere. You've seen bedrooms before of course, your own and other people's - but this bedroom, this one seems to go on for miles. The effect of suddenly seeing familiar objects on such a grand scale frightens you a little, frightens and enchants you. It's like being at the seaside, but with more pillows.

Next you find yourself in a room full of bookshelves, freestanding like so many obelisks. You weave in and out around them, inspect the sides and backs of them - did you ever know bookshelves even had backs? did you ever wonder what their backs looked like? And was there ever such a thrilling peekaboo venue in all the world?

And then a series of several connected rooms full of LIGHT FITTINGS - ah, you've never seen so many LIGHT FITTINGS in one place before, or in such dazzling variety! The colors, the textures, the hanging and standing and sitting lamps, lamps in animal shapes and flower shapes and ball shapes and tree-trunk shapes, lamps in clusters and lamps in straight lines, lamps trimmed with metal and lamps with wood and plastic and lamps covered in paper (paper!), all of them sparkling and glowing and winking at you, controlled by switches you've yet to find but you're sure must be there.

Wouldn't you think you'd wandered into paradise?

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Lovely post, MathNut. Sounds like Alice in Wonderland.
Aren't we all still small children?

Manhunt....... lol.

Yeah, I always had to correct the Auto Correct.

Edit: "There is a special place in Hull reserved for the guy who invented autocorrect."

Yes, and I would need me mum there to explain how it is actually a portal to hell.

Ikea does not have playgrounds. It has playrooms. Got nothing to do with a playground-a playground means earth and fresh air and that you dont get at Ikea.

Quite the childcare expert, aren't we?

Is it okay to go to Ikea in the winter when the outside playgrounds are iced up - after skiing, sledging, or exploring a forest in the snow, perhaps?

"Do you feel all playgrounds and restaurants are an uncreative waste of family time?" MathNut

Did I even mention " playgrounds " or restaurants in my original post?

By definition, in English, a playground, or in German, ein Spielplatz, can be either indoor or outdoors.

I have a relative like that.

Always bringing me cheap junk that i have no need for and feeling offended when I say no.

If you have a list the easiest way is to go online and order there.

The stores are really a drain on the essence of your soul. So big and so boring and that all-pervading smell of cheap glue and the infinite grumpiness of the staff (if indeed you can find any).

I once got shouted at by a security guard for trying to open a window.

That's just about the most exciting thing that ever happened to me in an IKEA store.

But its supposed to be a paradise?

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/de/w...d#translations

http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Spielplatz