From IKEAFANS.com:
Why Choosing IKEA is Smart - “Walking into an IKEA is like walking into a whole new world – it’s a wildly different experience, and it pays to know ahead of time why you should choose IKEA. Forget everything you think you know and read on to find out the top reasons choosing IKEA is the smartest move you’ll make….”

10 Keys to IKEA’s Low Prices “Just how does IKEA manage to offer such consistently low prices? Many people think that it’s because the furniture is made cheaply, which isn’t exactly true. Read on to find out about some of IKEA’s less obvious cost-saving strategies…”

By Kelly Whitaker @IKEAFANS.com:
DIY IKEA – How to MAKE Money in a Soft Housing Market “I spend a lot of time thinking about my finances- it’s true. Regardless if you do or not, I’d like to share my thoughts about why the current housing market makes an IKEA kitchen a better move than ever before. Everyone contemplating a remodel is or should be familiar with the resale value of typical home renovations…”

From Becky at Eco-Modernism:
Advantage: IKEA Kitchen over Custom It gets pummeled into our brains daily now: HOUSING MARKET IN THE CRAPPER! Yes. Yes it is. I just updated the budget calculation page & thought it worth a post, especially highlighting Kelly’s excellent summary on the IKEAFANS site….

So, there you go. Some good reading for you, less writing for me! Thanks for those most excellent articles, ladies!

Affordable dreams in tough economic times call for IKEA!
-by Kelly

Why do people love IKEA? Not everyone, of course, but certainly a great number of people all over the world do truly LOVE IKEA.

I can tell you what IKEA does for me…

It’s about accessibility of dreams. I’m a person who has lots of little plans and dreams about my surroundings from clothes to gardens, and like lots of people I’m influenced by television and magazines on what those things can look like. I want to be individual within a cultural context and to express myself through the physical attributes of my surroundings.

Like nearly everyone, my money and my mind are not in synch. I want more than I can afford or have. My eyes are bigger than my wallet. At times, I live firmly in an unbalanced state of desire. I have Plans without Wherewithal.

And then, there is IKEA. There are interesting, even beautiful things at IKEA- lots of them- that are within the realm of my financial possibility. These things are geared toward people who live in small spaces, who need places to put things away, who need a new bed or couch or kitchen or desk, but who cannot or don’t choose to spend a lot of money, but have a desire to purposefully choose the things they live with rather than take things others are done with.

I lived for too long with other people’s hand me downs, and I suspect that these were hand me downs prior to that. Who actually chose these things? Who desired them? In what home did they make sense, and where were they part of an integrated whole? I am not talking about heirlooms, I am talking about a round dining table when you need square, a light wood when everything else is dark, where nothing really matches or is the right size for the space you inhabit. It is always making do.

So, for me, IKEA is about the freedom to pick things I want to live with.

Why do you like IKEA?
Image by Zeuss via IKEAFANS.com Galleries

“…beneath the surface, IKEA is much more. It’s an adventure, a journey
abroad, a land unto itself, a place where you and your dreams meet at
last. To those of us with visions of everything from stunningly
remodeled kitchens to Swedish meatballs, IKEA is holy ground. When you
see those beautiful blue and gold flags waving gaily to you, announcing
that you are about to enter the IKEA parking lot, you almost want to
jump out of your car and get down on your knees, in prayerful
gratitude. When it comes to consumer fundamentalism, IKEA is Mecca,
Jerusalem, the Crystal Cathedral, St. Patrick’s, and the Buddha’s
Enlightenment Tree, all rolled into one…”

Read the full post at the SoMa Review

Photo: © ABF/All rights reserved

“I am wondering if you or your readers have the answers to a couple of questions:

1.  Are shoppers still being approached in-store and asked not to take photos?  I see so many pictures tagged “ikea” on flickr.com, it just must be that cameras are now ubiquitous that IKEA has stopped approaching everyone.  I was always approached and warned in the past.

2.  Does IKEA offer any of its logo merchandise for sale?  I’m talking about hats/visors, pens, pencils, shirts*/tshirts, backpacks, beach towels or office supplies in general?  If not, I can’t figure out why they don’t want their logo plastered on everything that we can buy. *I don’t mean shirts similar to what workers wear.”

Karen Breen-Bondie
…………………………

We’ll ask IKEA about this – ABF

“  I can’t explain the excitement I am feeling waiting for the opening
day of Ikea in Michigan.  I will be there and am seeing by the
CantonProject sight that about 20,000 +  others will be there too!
That means the secret is out.   Michigan will be redecorated with
Ikea.  Thank You for your choice of coming to Michigan, you won’t be
disappointed.”

- Judy S.

“I learned to love IKEA when I visited the East Coast in the Summer of 1994.  I had just graduated from college and bought as much for my new apartment as my parents’ van would hold.  We stopped at several in Virginia and Pennsylvania as we made our way home, buying more each time we found another IKEA store anywhere near our route.  I now live a couple of hours outside of Detroit am thrilled I won’t have to drive all the way to Chicago to get my fix.  THANKS IKEA, for being such a fun place to shop and for coming to Michigan!!”

- Julie L.

Share the love. Sign our log book!

“Made in China by a foreign company, sold to Chinese at foreign prices.”

Zoom Zoom @ FLICKR

Some rights reserved.

” The Patrik was designed for IKEA by Mia Gammelgaard, and it may be on it’s way
to becoming another IKEA classic… With bold good looks, an adjustable seat, a
solid caster system, nubby bright fabric and a price tag of only $149, the
Patrik is a stand out from IKEA’s other cushioned task chairs and is hard for
any other store to beat.”

LINK

1) I am a raging control freak. It’s taken me a
long time to accept and embrace the fact that the majority of the
problems we encountered that day were due to the fact that everything
had to be exactly the certain way I wanted it to be or I just went
unreasonably ballistic. Why Youl didn’t leave me sitting all by myself
in a pile of particleboard is still a mystery to me.

2) Stick to the instructions. We thought it would
be a great idea to use glue since the attachments seemed rather
questionable. We came to several points during construction when we
realized that we had put a piece in the wrong place, and had to rip
things apart. There was screaming, blaming, swearing, etc… bad scene.

3) Take breaks. Youl and I can be pretty hard core;
when we start something, we just want to get it finished. We worked and
worked with no breaks for food or drinks, and it really added to the
general irritability. I don’t advise this. Take a decent breather every
hour or so.

4) BYOT (Bring Your Own Tools). The tools supplied
with these ‘Assembly Required’ numbers are really just little
infuriating fire-starters in my mind….”

Visit Dizzyisland.com

Image: ina.tamu.edu

“I spent hours putting together the two flat-pack IKEA wardrobes made up several very heavy pieces of wood and hundreds of different screws, nuts, bolts and strange shaped plastic pieces which look as if they belong in a Lego kit. I finally think I’ve nearly reached the end and then I realise I’m missing 3 screws!!!

It was even more frustrating than not having sex for 6 months!

I know I’m not great at reading maps or following instructions, I usually give up and guess but that’s probably why it once took me 4 hours to do the 1 hour trip …There must be a little screw eating monster in the IKEA warehouse who was feeling hungry last weekend….”

LINK