tell me everything you can about Ikea furniture. What have you tried and loved? hated? What fell apart?

I love my Ikea furniture. It is going on 4 years and does not have any structural issues. However, I've found the wood finish nicks rather easily- an cosmetic issue that I fix with a sharpee.
Not everything is of the same structural quality. You need to give things a shake, test the drawers, etc etc because some things are more flimsy than others. Also, the flat pack boxes are very, very heavy.

Nechama, what do you have? What lines, what items?

This is some of what I own and is still on the site.
EKTORP sofa and armchair - nice and fluffy, washable slipcovers
RAMVIK coffee table (just bought so I cant vouch for it yet, IYH I'll update my "fix my living room" thread after I recover my throw pillows)
BEKVÄM kitchen cart- link I only have good things to say about this piece, its strong wood through and through, but unfinished.
BJURSTA Dining table- The finish has needed sharpee touch ups and the wood has nicked. However, I love the two extra leafs that store under the table.
Matching Roger chairs- same wood finish complaints as table. The chair pad cleans rather easily. However its not a large or generous sized chair.
Galant system desk Nothing special

we have 2 great ikea sofas. EKTORP, and one other... erm TYLOSAND maybe? EKTORP is super comfortable.

Love this:
Expedit


It has the same chipping issue, but I find that that's what happens with most 'cheap' wood furniture.

TDP- That's a great way to 'reengineer' the way Ikea presents their stuff. Looks great too! Are the plastic storage boxes from them too or s/t like The Container Store/LNT/BBB?


Bird- We have a lot of lamps from them. Think twice before getting their frosted/glass ones as they break way too easily on the stone Israeli floors (even when it was sitting on the floor and took a gentle bump).

Bigtoe reminded me- we bought a lamp from them and have needed to replace the circuit fuse (I think?) a few times. I dont know if its bad old wiring in our apt complex or Ikea quality to blame.

All the bins and baskets are from Ikea. I will be using the baskets for his clothing once I move and buy more of the plastic bins for the toys (this is the only furniture piece I have for sonny now).

All of my furniture is from Ikea sans the couch, two chairs and the computer desk.
My bedroom set is MALM (we have two wardrobes, two night tables, a tall six drawer dresser and a long six drawer dresser). We love the furniture. We were lazy when putting it together therefore the cardboard backs arent so great after a move but if we wouldve put all the nails in that were recommended, it would be fine. In addition to that, we found that glueing each drawer at the cracks helped keep it more sturdy. I assume that if you glue and nail the backs of all of Ikea furniture, it would stand up to moving much better (however, the benefit of it being lazily put together was that it was easily taken apart and able to be moved and put back together).
My livingroom set is Magikier (which i know is no longer available through Ikea. we're happy with it, however during the move, the movers broke a leg on each piece of furniture, which has made it hard to trust).
We have a glass show cabinet, i dont know the brand
and a VERY sturdy 4 shelf bookcase, which i forgot the brand but I dont think its still around. I think theres one similar to it. And our table, great table, seats 8-10, maybe 12(it has a leaf), and we love it....however, as with the rest of the furniture, it gets nicks very easily. We havent found a good way to fix them or avoid them either.

We REALLLLLLLY wanted to get the Ektorp sleep sofa, and we ordered it when we first got married, however it didnt fit in our apartment. When we moved, we planned on getting it but unfortunately, my husband's grandmother was niftar and we received her REEEEEALLLYYYY heavy duty wooden framed really super d duper comfy sleep sofa, so we didnt buy one... and the chairs...we got from a friend...

Our desk we bought from Staples, and we're happy with it.

Thanks all.
Pazz, I am specifically wondering about aronot/ wardrobes. There are no more Malm aronot on the Israeli site:(

I've never looked at the Israeli site, therefore I dont know anything about their furniture. Are you taking suitcases to move or you taking a lift?

Just suitcases.
The Israeli store has most of what the US store has. There are no malm wardrobes on the US site either.

We have RAMBERG wardrobes - quite happy with them, except that the doors don't always close well. I'm planning on fixing that with a small magnet or something. Otherwise, they are great (and very cheap)...

yea they dont make it anymore but their whole set is good....they make the PAX which i think they seem to think is a replacement for it.
i wouldnt buy anything till i went to the store and felt it for myself.

Good to know, thanks. Ramberg is on our list of possibilities.

Does that company make items like chairs or sofas or beds or whatever? It's just funny because the word is so similar to "bakvem" in yiddish. (Comfortable.) Couldn't find info on the word origin through google though. (Then again I didn't really search through more than one page of results.)