Always felt like IKEA furniture was begging for customization. Been integrating smart home tech into my Kallax for months.
Hacking IKEA Furniture
181–190 of 288 posts
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…
I don’t understand this at all. Everybody has my phone and my AirPods, or a model close to them, and that’s fine. I don’t need my AirPods to have a monogamous relationship with me.
My hypothesis is that phones are inherently personal and personalisable: it’s our photo on the lock screen and our text messages in the app.
Whereas most people don’t even consider attempting to personalise their couch or their car, so the desire for personalisation is satisfied by having a wide variety of options and colours prior to purchase. And also by having styles rapidly evolve so that many “trendy” and “anti-trendy” options are available at the time of purchase.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
IKEA is fine when you’re just starting out, but after years, you realize that it’s got a shelf life. Good furniture really is better. You can get great stuff for very reasonable prices on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, and it’s much more solid, durable and interesting than the cookiecutter ikea stuff.
While helping friends move, as one does, I often challenge them to disassemble and reassemble their IKEA gear and still have it tight on the other side, so to speak, of the particle board .. Some do it with grace, some of us with a bit of duct tape. Others, not at all.
I’ve got a 10 year old Ikea bed that has passed this test twice now, even though I’ve lost some pieces.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not sure I understand this perspective, I’m looking forward to inheriting some of my parents furnitures and getting rid of some of the ikea crap.. they are furniture that have been in the family in some cases for over 200 years, and I learned to maintain them and care for them as a kid just as a regular part of housework. Some have had amusing changes in use as the times changed, like an old wardrobe being turned…
> I’m looking forward to inheriting some of my parents furnitures and getting rid of some of the ikea crap.. I think you are confusing the perspective of the GP here. Your perspective is that of the "kid". You like the parents' furniture and eventually want to use them and that's all fine. But GP is describing the parent perspective which, they argue, shouldn't be to plan life such that the kids will be inheriting an…
This is a complex topic and I’m not going to do it justice in a comment, but I feel like modern society might just be destroying social mobility in the name of what you described, while the already rich are dynasty building just fine as usual via a variety of legal means only available to them selves.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…
IKEA is fine when you’re just starting out, but after years, you realize that it’s got a shelf life. Good furniture really is better. You can get great stuff for very reasonable prices on Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, and it’s much more solid, durable and interesting than the cookiecutter ikea stuff.
We're talking about the masses. Non-cookiecutter stuff costs more. Not everyone can afford to pay 5x or 10x what an IKEA product would cost.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of it is very good, although you have to dig to find it. They use real wood in many pieces; it's not all disposable. I don't think that the good stuff is popular, though, and it certainly isn't highlighted. When a durable (often secretly classic) design slips in, it doesn't last more than a few years. The price is usually too high and it's usually too heavy (for their audience, not for me.) I've still got some r…
Funny you should mention this. Just yesterday my wife and I went to the local Ikea to pick up some bookcases. I was originally just going to buy a bunch of the Billy bookcases; we have a few and know their limitations. But then I noticed they had a much better series called the Hemnes made with actual solid wood shelves and legs so you can route power cords and clean under them. Nice. So instead of a bunch of Billy's…
Hemnes is a municipality in Norway. 10 minute drive from where I grew up.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#187An architect friend of mine once said that he admired IKEA above all other furniture manufacturers because it made a modern range of aesthetics available to the masses. IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. And I do have to agree. I can remember what ghastly furniture most shops used to have around here. There was a lot of what we call "cabin furniture" - which isn't made to look…
I think Ikea is great. But my overall goal is to replace all of our Ikea furniture with better and/or self-made furniture. It's easier said than done.
Likewise. I signed up for woodworking classes. I think I'm in for a rude awakening.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
>IKEA had done more to evolve the public taste than any other manufacturer. I have lived and worked around a fair chunk of the western world, establishing my local headquarters each time, building myself a home. Long, long ago, I gave up on IKEA for everything except cookware and meatballs. The reason? I grew rapidly tired with seeing my living room everywhere. Move across the US, get invited over for dinner with new…
I don’t understand this at all. Everybody has my phone and my AirPods, or a model close to them, and that’s fine. I don’t need my AirPods to have a monogamous relationship with me.
People often place their home in a different category than computer accessories.
And even in your example people spend a lot of time picking out cases or decorations for those items.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#189In typical HN fashion, the blog post is a run of the mill “hack” and instead of commenting on the article, a Hacker News instead word vomits their favorite IKEA furniture.
Lol, that's true. It's even funny.
Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture
#190My current standing desk is a custom desk built from some wholesale parts from Linak and a custom MDF board. When we went to build a similar one for my partner we no longer had access to the same MDF supplier (i.e. my dad's startup), so we just went down to the local IKEA and bought a desk board and put it together all the same. Sure it's cheap chipboard, but all the magic is in the frame, actuators and control box so to replace the board is really straightforward and cheap as chips.