Quiltingboard Forums - looking for opinions on IKEA furniture for my sewing space

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I have been a huge fan of IKEA for nearly 30 years. My bedroom, guest room, both my daughter's rooms (they took with them when they flew the nest) and of course, my quilting room - ALL IKEA!! I truly believe it's the best value for my money. Billy Bookcases with glass doors, Expedit 12 cube wall system, Hemnes Bedroom dressers, even our sofa, mattresses, and Bedframes (one queen rattan and one full metal), not to mention all the wonderful fabrics IKEA sells! I'm fortunate to have an IKEA 40 minutes from my house here on Long Island. I swear they didn't pay me a dime to post this!!

I have Ikea bookcases, two tables side by side for my cutting tables with drawer units under the tables and I love them. I also have one of the bookshelves with the baskets for materials and I love that too. I put solid doors on the bottom half of the bookcases and use the top half for displays. I love going into a quilt store or see someone's sewing room with knick knacks. It makes it so much more personal and cute.

Oh yes I'm a newbie to Ikea and I love love that store.

At my LQS they used Ikea units. THey put 2 together and laminated a top to them - under the laminate they put a metal sheet then topped it with the laminate - so now you can use magnets to hold your cloth down for cutting ect. Genius!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alice PD (Post 6177574)

We put 3 PAX wardrobe units including doors (from IKEA) side by side in our laundry room. It looks great and the PAX units are very strong. We got extra shelves and brackets just in case we wanted to change the configuration of the shelves over time. That has really paid off. I wanted to be able to put standard plastic bins (like from Walmart) on each shelf, so I considered that when I decided how many shelves to get. We also put 2 drawers at the bottom of each unit, and that has been real handy too. The PAX units and shelves are so strong, they don't sag like other less expensive units.

DH assembled it, easily, on living room floor and I helped carry it into the laundry room. We stood them up and then DH anchored them to each other (to hold them close to each other) and then to the wall (we live in earthquake country).

We liked them so much, we went back and got more PAX units (without the doors this time) and put them in our guest room closet....yea!....more room for more fabric. Again we got extra shelves, just in case our needs changed, and sure enough, we have made changes over the last 5 years 2 or 3 times. Almost all the extra shelves are now in use.

We had to drive 2 hours + to get to the nearest IKEA, so IKEA let us open all the packages to verify that there were no chipped or missing pieces. We did change out one shelf with a ding on its corner, and we discovered we were short a couple shelf brackets. So we were able to go home knowing everything was complete and in perfect condition.

It looks beautiful and I would recommend it to anyone!

Thank you so much, Alice, for your response. This was exactly what I was wondering about. We are waiting to hear from a company who puts in murphy beds and cabinets to see what they can do for us but I am still strongly considering this option as well.
Have a good one!
lots2do

PS And thanks to everyone else who has also taken the time to respond to this post.

Ikea has nice furniture. I love it. They are really good at putting together multiple units to make exactly the configuration you want. I was going to put pieces together to make a sewing table a few years ago. I was saving the money but didn't get it. A friend exchanged a custom sewing table for a bridesmaid dress for his daughter. The table is awesome. Luckily the table will last forever.( the marriage only lasted 6 months) I plan on heading to Ikea tomorrow to buy some storage things for my room. They are also a good source for pillow forms to cover. Much less expensive and better quality than JoAnns.

You cannot beat Ikea when it comes to price and quality. I have a Billy bookcase I bought 30 years ago when we lived in Germany...as good today as the day I bought it. I bought more Billy bookcases here (these with doors) for fabric storage. I made the mistake of buying a big lunking wardrobe from Lowe's and paid several hundred dollars for it. I HATE it and want it out...the config is awful. I could do so much more with a couple more Billys!

Good tip on the pillow forms. I wouldn't have known that! The Billy bookcases look great. I might get a skinny, long one to put along my banquet table for little cubby storage. Good to know that the storage units even survive being moved from a different country - that's impressive!

Hi lots2do, I had stacking cabinets with wood doors from Ikea. (I have no idea what the name/style were called.) I liked them. The wood doors kept dust and sun off of my fabric. I had three (arranged vertically). There was a space in between each of the three cabinets and my rulers fit nicely there. If I had pulled a bunch of fabric out to choose from I had to refold them and stack them nicely or they wouldn't fit back in. That was a good thing - I couldn't leave the fabric all messed up! :) I got rid of the cabinets back around Thanksgiving to make room for our 2 new dogs. I really do miss them and my fabric is now in Rubbermaid bins. It's taking up just as much space and it's so much harder to find the piece of fabric I want. My husband is not that handy, either, and we didn't have too much trouble putting them together. I think you'd probably be happy with them.