Probably not. Depends what tho'. We have a large EXPEDIT bookcase for years, use it to store toys, and it is in great shape.

Just bought a leather-look sofa for my office. Only $399 and it looks like it is worth 3x as much.

I think the fake wood finishes look better than the white plasticy finishes.

One woman's opinion.

Hi..First let me tell you that our family loves IKEA.I was never sure how the concept which is Ikea would cotton on in France..... popular branded furniture.

I've been buying IKEA furniture since I was 16 (I'm 27 now). I have a table that's made from pine and particle board (which IKEA uses most often) and it has lasted me over 10 years with no problems at all. It's a fantastic computer table. That was 10 years ago though.

IKEA has since then decided that in order to go "green" they will produce cheaper stuff, and somehow their logic makes sense to them or at least they are able to spin off their product quality as to it being sustainable. IKEA is now trash, imo. The dresser I bought a year ago makes all my clothes smell like particle board (glue, and wood chips)every time the humidity goes up. The drawers from a nightstand I bought barely open, and it was purchased 2 years ago. You can't put furniture together without somehow damaging it, and forget about moving it around. One bump and your particle board case piece is now missing a corner.

I'm moving soon from Los Angeles to Texas, and I'm selling everything I own and starting new mostly because I don't believe it's worth the moving van price to transport anything from IKEA. When repurchasing furniture in Texas I am going to make sure absolutely NOTHING comes from IKEA.

It's really good for college kids, or if you really don't have the budget to buy from anywhere else. If you can spend the extra $100 bucks or so, then buy it from elsewhere. I would go ahead and say that at this point Target furniture has way better quality than IKEA does.

So in the end, it really comes down to this: How long do you want your purchase to last? Are you buying *whatever it is* to last you a lifetime? Or are you buying it to last you for two years? Short term, IKEA is amazing. Long term, not so much.

Own a bit of Ikea stuff and it's quite OK. Even after moving twice, it's still solid enough (cabinets).

If you are going to compare IKEA to Crate & Barrel, the simple answer is that they do not compare. C&B is genuine mid-quality furniture. IKEA is starter furniture. It's what you get when you have a very limited budget and you don't expect to need the furniture for very long. In that role, it is excellent, but don't confuse it with quality furniture.

We're a couple with 2 almost-teen kids, about to move to a new house. We've had Ikea furniture for over a decade and have been happy with it. Organized Living (may it rest in peace) had somewhat thicker, more heavy-weight RTA furniture, but much of the Ikea furniture is quite well made, for example the PAX wardrobes. Ikea kitchen drawers use re-branded Blum drawer hardware, which has the great soft-close feature.

We've just bought more Ikea bookcases and PAX wardrobes. We do look for quality -- I'm seriously considering Ekornes Stressless leather sofas, and we'd gotten some built-in furniture, but we like contemporary furniture, and we choose based on the style, quality and functionality we want, not the manufacturer.

And the savings from buying from Ikea comes in handy -- that's what makes it possible to look at the Ekornes ... or to have more $$ for kids' college! :-)

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PS. There's also an Ikeafans website with an excellent advice forum. Folks trade tips on choosing, installing and/or customizing Ikea furniture. I got great advice there on how to create a 20" deep wall laundry cabinet out of a 20" x 79" high PAX wardrobe. It is VERY sturdy. I was impressed by how study and well-aligned they are, and how good the hardware. I'm linking to two threads that might be relevant to someone thinking about Ikea cabinet quality.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikeafans forum -- reviews of Ikea kitchen cabinet quality

Price says it all.
Also, Crate and Barrel furniture is pre-made while IKEA requires assembly.
If you want to buy furniture that will last long, go for crate and barrel.
If you are planning to move soon and if you are planning to buy furniture just for temporary furnishing purposes, go for IKEA.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buying Furniture Blog - The Blog To Go To When You Want To Buy Furniture

I think that IKEA makes a lot of cheap basic stuff good as "placeholders" until you buy something with more character and substance, but also makes a lot of flimsy crud. Don't shop there at all unless you are good at telling the two apart just by looking, or you are willing to google first to see reviews of the item you are considering. That said, a lot of people who make their own furniture do incredibly well out of the place by shopping the the scratch and dint section for things like shelves, cupboard doors and countertops.