Just Some Oak and Some Pine and a Handful of Norsemen

Every Tuesday is Kitchen Sink day at Living Behind the Curve.

Ah, IKEA. Immortalized in song by Jonathan Coulton, parodied on the Simpsons, and hacked l33tly by people the world over. It has a place in the hearts of pop-culture junkies worldwide, but IKEA’s furniture has a bad rap.

I’ve read several articles that recommend going to “real furniture stores” instead of IKEA. I think this stems from the fact that we’ve all owned at least one piece of cheap furniture made out of particle board that is disintigrating before our very eyes, right?

Guess what, folks? Not only are particle board and MDF not the same animal*, there’s a lot of furniture out there that is made from veneered MDF, and not just at IKEA.

Let’s compare and contrast some similar items, from IKEA and a random furniture retailer: INGOLF Chair, solid wood, $59.99; Acosta Side Chair, solid wood, $99.99. Note the similarities between the chairs; rather ironically, the Acosta is described as “inspired by Swedish design”. To complete the setup: STOCKHOLM table, MDF with oak veneers, $429; Mission Loft Collection Table, “wood and wood products”, $599.99.

While researching this article, I was pleasantly surprised to find that IKEA sells solid wood tables: the MARKOR (solid pine, $229), NORDEN/BJORKUDDEN (solid birch, $99.99, in two sizes), NORDEN (solid beech or solid birch, $259), and the EDEFORS (solid oak, $439). 4 INGOLF chairs with a BJORKUDDEN table: under $350 for a solid wood dining set. Not too shabby.

There is wonderful, 100% wood, hand-carved furniture to be had out there. We live close enough to Amish country to get it fairly easily, but it does come at a price, and heirloom-quality furniture is not a priority for us. I’m still using some of the same bookshelves I had in college, and our dining room set is an 18-year-old laminate-top hand-me-down. Our sofas are furniture warehouse floor samples. Everything else came from IKEA, and it will probably stay that way for a good long time.

*MDF is an engineered wood product, composed of finely ground softwoods and resin, that is very strong and durable. Particleboard, or “chipboard” is also an engineered wood product. It is made from sawdust, wood chip, and resin, and is much less durable than MDF. Particleboard is prone to chipping and is highly susceptible to moisture damage.