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I don't know why HN has the idea that IKEA is cheap trash - yes some of the things in their catalog are not very high quality, but they seem to be very consistent.

But more importantly (for me), because they have such a huge catalog, and a propensity to optimise, they ended up with a supremely hackable furniture - everything fits together with everything else, whenever you want to build something - there are tons of parts available - and you can buy just the parts its kinda like lego.

Also a lot of Ikea stuff is made of honeycomb paper - so it's trivial to put cables and electronics inside. I've hacked multiple tables and sofas by putting charging ports / wireless chargers and other doo-dads inside, vastly decreasing my cable management issues.

And again if anything breaks, its kinda trivial to fix it yourself, as you've probably assembled it and know where each bold and nail go.

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It is mostly cheap trash, especially these days. You admit it yourself - honeycomb, particleboard etc. Saying "some" things are not high quality is being very very charitable

There used to be a better mix of cheap, mid and slightly upper mid. And they often pulling crap like swapping out for cheaper materials but calling it the same model name

Ikea stuff with metal parts: grab it and keep it.

Ikea stuff with solid wood parts: if you really like it, it's probably good value.

Ikea stuff with manufactured wood parts: you'd better really like, because it probably won't last that long or that well.

The aspect of Ikea furniture I like - it is typically stylish. To get an equivalent look somewhere else usually invokes large price increases for seemingly no change in quality.

It is definitely not the best quality, but I have moved several Ikea pieces over the years without much ill effects. Would I like to upgrade to some "adult" furniture one day? Maybe, but I fear much of it is like other designer goods - identical crap construction with a reputable label stitched on the front.

One nice thing about IKEA furniture is that the price of an item is well connected to its quality, and they offer items in a range of quality levels, so there’s a trustable signal in the price

I don't know if this is specific to where you are, but my experience in IKEAs in NL doesn't fully support that. Some really decent metal products (mini tables/trolleys) can cost $20-40 (what I'd consider more budget friendly), while a $50ish bookshelf uses particleboard. The cheapest deskmat has poor quality but is cheap, but the $20 or $30 top end "fancy" one is still some kind of plastic.

My learning has been - find the good deals where they are (there are some really good ones!), but check the quality of everything first.

I guess I’m thinking intra-product category here. A sofa that costs 2x the price of another, I’m expecting to be 2x the quality

I think you would want to be prepared to be disappointed, hah.

Honestly, IKEA have made so many cuts in quality since 2021, and increased prices, it's barely recognisable.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/viskafors-3-seat-sofa-lejde-ant... here's a £1100 sofa (2x the famous Ektorp). Sure, it's got a bit of solid wood, some slightly higher density foam in some areas, some cheap springs, but that's about it. It's got very poor quality fabric according to the reviews - a trend in their sofas the last couple of years.

I would bet if you picked up the corner of /any/ IKEA sofa (I've tested maybe 6-8), there would be significant flex. Ditto if you rocked the back.

There really is very little variance in quality in reality

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