I wouldn't buy a sofa from Ikea, except perhaps the Klippan. The rest aren't really good IMO. But neither are any of the other budget offerings from other stores. Unless you buy a super expensive designer sofa, you will get the flimsy feeling sofa. And if you look at the option, you can have 1 good quality sofa, or 5-10 cheap ones - it's not hard to see why people opt for the cheap model.

And this story continues with all other offerings in my experience. Ikea is the king in the budget segment - they offer more quality for money, than any of their competitors. You need to significantly upgrade the material choice to get better quality, and since that is not produced at scale it's significantly more expensive.

I'd like to add, that with IKEA you know what you can expect in terms of quality, sturdiness and usability. You know it's not the best, but you also know that it'll survive a few years and maybe moving once.

With other brands, your expectation has a broader variance.

* the discount furniture competitor also uses cheap material, but you cannot be sure that you can even assemble the furniture (lousy packaging and screws are missing or you aren't able to grasp the manual, etc). * the quality brand thing might be amazing, or it might just be an expensive, good-looking piece of bad furniture. Anyone use USM Haller?

I admit: I buy all my furniture at IKEA. And helping friends move their furniture from place to place, I have learned, that IKEA is the choice if you don't want to become a furniture expert. They are sturdier than their reputation, their design doesn't quickly fall out of fashion (like other furniture often does) and overall a rational choice.

Also this seems to be reflected by the their resale value. I had lived a 1 h drive away from an IKEA last time I moved, and was able to sell off a lot of ikea furniture for prices I never dreamed reachable for used furniture. People knew what to expect, what the stuff cost new (because: catalog), didn't want to do the 1 hour drive and then felt like a high price was still reasonable.

The resale value has surprised me every single time I want to get rid of some Ikea furniture. It's always sellable, and it is for a decent price.

I have too much Ikea furniture because, after moving to Denmark, it was the easiest way to buy everything I needed in just a couple of trips. My table seems to be good quality, but the sofa and bed are disappointing. I didn't like any of the coffee tables (sofaborde) so I have the 299kr "Lack" until I find something better.

It was difficult to find a shop selling better furniture than Ikea, except for the designer furniture stores in the centre of Copenhagen -- and I'm not ready to spend over 5000kr on a concrete-topped table.

> It was difficult to find a shop selling better furniture than Ikea, except for the designer furniture stores in the centre of Copenhagen -- and I'm not ready to spend over 5000kr on a concrete-topped table.

Same in the US. The options are: Ikea, Ikea knockoffs that're worse but somehow more expensive, tacky, bulky furniture that's poorly made and ~2x Ikea's prices, and then the high end that starts around 5x the price of Ikea, minimum, and goes up from there.

The semi-disposable nature of Ikea kinda fits modern US housing construction, anyway. It's odd to have a table that'll last 200+ years in a house that's gonna need significant cosmetic replacements (nothing's real solid wood so repairs/refinishes are right out) in 10-15 years, major renovation in 20-30 years, and will likely be torn down in 60 or fewer.

A perceptive assessment. You've got Ikea, which is generally quite tasteful, and then you have the likes of Target furniture, which is also tasteful yet somehow makes even the lowest-tier Ikea pieces seem rock-solid in comparison. You can step up to Art Van and get agonizingly milquetoast design for about 1.5x Ikea prices, or fiddly, baroque Arhaus for 2x.

Then you jump up to the likes of Restoration Hardware, in that 4-5x Ikea range, with the real vintage aesthetics Arhaus is hamfistedly aping, and after that, the ironically-named Design Within Reach which matches Ikea's minimalism with maximum durability at what seems like 10x Ikea prices.

I would say the one thing you've missed is Crate & Barrel, which is in maybe a 2-3x Ikea range and tends to have very tasteful design along with across-the-board durability.

I've had to resort to the secondhand market to find furniture I actually like. I've found that the Ikea-alternatives (Bohus, Skeidar, Møbelringen) in Norway is in general not of a greater quality, just way more costly, and in general, not that much better looking (aside from beds, couches, and chairs). I'm not paying 20 000 NOK for a "vitrineskap" (google says "display cabinet") at Bohus when Ikea's is of similar quality, but for 1/10th of the price.

I hear you on those Danish design furniture, often ugly, impractical, and expensive. But, I like the biggest of the "ball/egg chairs", the ones were there's enough room for two in one chair. Used to have one when I lived in Oslo, outside on the balcony. Isn't that by some Danish designer?

http://zedomax.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/ball-chai...

The one you are talking about was designed by Eero Aarnio, a Finnish designer. The Danish one is made by Arne Jacobsen and it resembles a minimalist arm chair.