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Hacking IKEA Furniture

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Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#241

Post by lou1306 »

coldtea wrote: post #143
bborud wrote: post #69

An 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…

> it made a modern range of aesthetics available to the masses It made lack-of-aesthetics available to the masses: the same monopoly pre-selected designs for everybody, saturating every home.

Of course it is not to everyone's taste, but Ikea definitely has an aesthetics. A Lack coffee table or a Poang chair are instantly recognizable.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#242

Post by navane »

wongarsu wrote: post #237
bmitc wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a lot of my Ikea furniture for over a decade. That includes a dining room table, several bookshelves, office table with glass top, coffee table, and several other things I've forgotten about, and we have some dressers that are years old as well. And several of these pieces have been involved in a move or two. Applying care and some wood glue during construction will yield a very solid product for years to co…

Even their honeycomb stuff can be surprisingly good. I have a Malm desk for over a decade, disassembled and reassembled twice for moving, and it's as good as new Sure, you could probably punch through the desk surface with a screwdriver. But within normal use it holds up great

Very few tables wouldn't be ruined by punching it with a screw driver.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#243

Post by navane »

Ikea is great. They solved 90% of furniture. They never rip you off. If only more industries were solved like Ikea solved furniture.

Imagine cars or clothes or food or housing the Ikea way. Meticulously improved decade over decade. Always respecting the customer, the customer never the product. No change because of change.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#244

Post by xxs »

nunez wrote: post #38
Beijinger wrote: post #27

There are tons of websites like this: https://ikeahackers.net/ I read, IKEA first wanted to have them closed down, but then they realized, it does not matter why someone buys their stuff, as long as they buy it. I like Ikea. I lived in so many countries, and it is an excellent place to buy furniture if you have to. But I consider it "throw away" furniture. Quality is okay or soso and it is unlikely to survive several…

IKEA furniture can hold up very well if you follow the instructions precisely and don't disassemble them (in most cases). We have furniture from IKEA that we bought at least five years ago that still functions great. A mattress we got from them is absolutely stellar with a memory foam topper; all of our guests love it. I think our coffee table is ten years old now. However, everything goes to hell once you try to tak…

>However, everything goes to hell once you try to take it apart.

You are not supposed to do that, and if you do - use PVA and epoxy, +metal insert and machine bolts to reassemble

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#245

Post by piltdownman »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #136
MomsAVoxell wrote: post #123

Earlier 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.

Because iPhone/AirPods are a wealth and fashion signifier. IKEA is a flat-pack THX-1138.

Fight Club summarised it beautifully two decades ago:

“- Like so many others, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.

Narrator: Uh, yes. I’d like to order the Erica Pekkary dust ruffles.

Operator: Please hold.

- If I saw something clever like a little coffee table in the shape of a yin-yang, I had to have it. The Klipske personal office unit, the Hovetrekke home exer-bike, or the Johannshamn sofa with the Strinne green stripe pattern. Even the Rizlampa wire lamps of environmentally friendly unbleached paper. I’d flip through catalogs and wonder: What kind of dining set defines me as a person? I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections. Proof that they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of…

Operator: Please hold.

Narrator: Wherever. I was holding.

- We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow collection.”

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#246

Post by pibaker »

mastermage wrote: post #210
unsupp0rted wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What do you think Phone Cases are for? People love phone cases because it gives their devices a bit uniqueness. AirPods also have cases. Other than that for Obvious Reasons Phones all look similar. The shape of your phone is not self expression. However i would hazard a guess if you look into the phone on the home screen you will not find two alike.

YMMV obviously but when I see someone using a phone case it's usually one of those thick rubbery protective ones, or one of those with a flap over the screen that also holds credit cards and IDs. There is a clear utilitarian case for phone cases. Pun unintended.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#247

Post by jitbit »

fwn wrote: post #228
jitbit wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is (mostly) AI generated. Which is funny because it complains about the lack of originality

I see my style of thinking and writing everywhere in the world now. What happened? On a more serious note, and to tie the fun AI comment into the actual discussion: I suppose the types of medium through which people try to express themselves are just very diverse. One person makes a statement through their dinner table, another through their iPhone wallpaper, etc..

Not when the convention is that theres supposed to be a real person on the other side.

Example: a real musician decides to use AI to generate music (in full or partially) - their audience may still feel cheated.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#248

Post by frgturpwd »

bborud wrote: post #69

An 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…

You do need to have some combination of money, time, a car, patience, taste, willingness to inspect things in person, and owned housing to care about a piece of furniture that's "not from IKEA". For a normal person who wants their rented apartment to be livable like... now, it is probably the only good choice. People are so quick to talk crap about it when their only decent options outside of it are either "designer furniture" they cannot afford, custom made furniture they don't have the vision for (but also can't afford), or "eclectic pieces" from "thrift stores" that only unemployed hobbyist or people who own their apartments can afford (in terms of time). I really dislike that.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#249

Post by narag »

wccrawford wrote: post #89
PeterStuer wrote: post #86

Always wonder why those "IKEA Hackers" don't just start from plain furiture panels. More quality for very little less effort.

Do you have an example of these "furniture panels" that are higher quality and require less effort than a mod to a fully-realized piece of furniture with easy instructions? I left off "as cheap" because you didn't say it, but it's a huge part of the puzzle that you deliberately ignored, too. But I'm really interested in seeing these "furniture panels" that you're recommending.

I've made a complete desk with three shelves under the top and a compartment for the desktop computer. Twice. Using standard 244x122 cm planches and some screws. Price depends on the quality of the wood you choose. Shops will cut it to pieces for no extra money. Unfortunately I have no photos and lost the design, but I'm confident I would recreate it in minutes.

It's completely functional and not ugly. Again, you can choose real wood or some of those composites. Also maybe changing screw system (the original setup is like the one showed in TFA) you could make it nicer. I bet there are tons of designs like that out there.

Re: Hacking IKEA Furniture

#250

Post by coldtea »

lou1306 wrote: post #241
coldtea wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it made a modern range of aesthetics available to the masses It made lack-of-aesthetics available to the masses: the same monopoly pre-selected designs for everybody, saturating every home.

Of course it is not to everyone's taste, but Ikea definitely has an aesthetics. A Lack coffee table or a Poang chair are instantly recognizable.

>but Ikea definitely has an aesthetics.

It has a recognizable design language.

Doesn't mean it has aesthetic merit (which was my point). The design language is derivative mix (copies of decades old scandinavian originals, adopting of this or that famous design language like mid-century modern, globalized minimal viable design), basically substituting a ready-made corporate taste for the buyer's own - the very opposite of aesthetics.

If IKEA has an "aesthetic" it's in the trivial sense that everything designed has one, the same way a fast food meal is a culinary artifact as every other prepared meal is, doesn't mean it has culinary (or even nutritional) value.

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