What are your favorite IKEA items?

Coffee and meatballs😀. Ikea is an hour drive so we usually go for breakfast and cime back after lunch time. I love their coffee and DH and DS live their meat balls.

They no longer carry it but I loved their expedit stuff. They now have a similar style called kallax. I have fe expedit that use as book shelves/tv stand in master bedroom etc.

Oh and we also love their candles. They are mich subtle in smell and i love it. You should also check out their kitchen section fir pans.

And when you visit, first go to their "as-is" section before you start shopping😀

I absolutely love my IKEA kitchen. I was able to do all the custom ideas I had at a fraction of the custom cost, thanks in part to DH's ingenuity. I know some people are down on ikea for being cheap materials, but the kitchens really are very nice.

I also got some little lingerie chests that fit in my closet perfectly.

The Expedit. It started when my sister bought the 5 x 5 to corral kids toys and act as a room divider 20 or so years ago. What a great idea! So I bought a 4 x 4 for our toy room. Then one for each of the kids' bedrooms. Then we moved and I added a 4 x 2 for the family room. Then we moved again and the 4 x 2 went into the office along with a second one and another new 4 x 4. I was looking everywhere for something to work in our new family room and finally gave up, looked at DH, and said I need the truck to go to Ikea. My first 5 x 5 came home with me that day.

Final count:

2 4x2 (one sits horizontal behind my desk and one vertical beside DH's desk.
4 4x4 (kids room, office & bonus room)
1 5x5 (family room)

I can't remember what the new version of the Expedit is called. 

I do love my Raskog cart as well and love the original colors (I have the aqua). I've thought about getting a second one for the kids' bathroom but really don't like the new colors.

I also really like the Vittsjo coffee & laptop tables. TBH, I bought them as inexpensive temporary options until I found something I liked better but I have grown to really like them.

ETA I forgot about the duvet covers we've bought over the years. So inexpensive and easy to change out as the kids get older.

My other favorite purchase is a patio set with a table and six super sturdy chairs. We bought them when the kids were little and DS was a climber. He couldn't tip these over and I was sold. Every couple of years I sand them and repaint and change out the cushions. We've had the set for 16 years and they are still going strong.

I really love the Alex drawers for makeup. I watched girls on YouTube put a table top on them and make a makeup vanity out of it and I've been trying to do the same thing but when I went to get the drawers it was going to be $354 to ship both drawers...umm no. So I'm disappointed but I'm doing a knock off version using drawers from Michaels.

Yea shipping is RIDICULOUS!! My Mom and her friends did a road trip to Dallas last summer and took a Uhaul trailer. They cleaned out IKEA and The Container Store. Lol That's how I got my drawers.

A large portion of the furniture and kitchen equipment is from Ikea.

My everyday dishes are 15 years old. I love them and they have held up beautifully. I have several knife magnet strips. Duvet covers, I mix and match. Garden items for indoors and out. Billy bookcases, they have all kinds of great door options. Tabletop of your choice with legs of your choice. And meatballs with gravy.

J

I live four minutes from IKEA.

I find their furniture to be good quality. Its held up better than a lot of pieces that I purchased from much more expensive furniture stores (ahem, my dining room table). I actually hate my coffee table that my husband bought from IKEA twenty years ago, and it WILL NOT DIE. I keep hoping that my kids will break it, but no, it's the one thing that cannot be destroyed. My husband has some weird sentimentality about said table or I would just replace it.

I have an ikea kitchen which I love. My only complaint is that they have since changed the drawer dimensions so none of the drawer organizers fit in mine. Grrr.

I love their kids furniture- it holds up amazingly. Their stepstools are great value, nice design and useful.

I buy kitchen stuff there. Their knife magnets and dishware is all great.

I don't buy too much of the food because we don't buy much processed stuff but my kids love the Rosti from there, and I like their premade gingerbread dough. Its so easy for the kids to bake and have fun "designing" and I don't have to make dough, LOL.

We love their straws, you get a lot and they are the thin kind. Also we buy napkins there. I have a desk I got about 15 years ago and still looks great. I also have a vanity desk I got about 2 years ago.

We have one a few towns over so I only go once a year. There are plenty of items you will find by browsing the store lol.

I don't think the food is that good but each to his own.

My closest Ikea is 2 1/2 hours away, and I just made the trip two days ago so it's fresh on my mind.

I love the meatballs. I forgot to pack my cooler, and didn't think it was worth buying a new one, so I couldn't bring frozen meatballs home. Ate them in the store for lunch though.

I love the throw rugs, the dishtowels, the bathmats. I love all the little stuff, kitchen gadgets, etc. I was drooling over the kitchens. Will definitely be doing that when I build my house in a couple of years.

What I love about Ikea is it's inexpensive, but not ugly. When I was a very poor single mom, and I had to buy the cheap stuff, I hated that it was always so unattractive. Like bedding for example. You know it's not going to be good quality for that price, but why does it have to be ugly too? It doesn't cost less to manufacture ugly sheets. Sure, you can charge more if they're cute, but then why make ugly sheets at all? There is no savings there to the manufacturer. Ikea gets that.

I have a black Raskog knock-off and it looks really good with my scrapbook stuff in it. The scrapbook stuff is all colorful and the black just sets it all off like a 3-tiered frame. Look into that. Not everything needs to be colorful in order for it to look updated and snazzy. It is so useful that I have bought one for every bridal shower. I got mine at Walmart but Amazon has them, too.

Raskog, Alex drawers, Billy bookcases. I loved a kitchen worktable they used to carry. I wish I had gotten one when they still sold them, but I had no place for it. I see it in pictures of people's craft rooms every now and then.

Yea, that. We were there 2 wks ago. I hate the long wandering trek thru it, to look at things, and then go get your thing. I mean, yea, If I went there more I could figure out short cuts. but sometimes ya really can't. Then the stuff is all so plain and blah. The food seems like the stuff you pull out of the freezer and warm up? so yea. Not a fan. I did buy some drinking glasses though.

this is our house!  We have SO SO many Expedit / Kallex shelving units!  it all started with a 4x4 to organize my scrap room when we moved into this house 9 yrs ago! 
now we have:

1 4x4 ( used in my craft area)
3 2x4 ( 1 in craft area, 1 about to be used for misc toys and 1 as a tv stand in our front room ( I have fabric drawers in it to hide all of my girl scout garb) 
4 2x2  ( 2 in our master bedroom for nightstands, 1 for the girl child for all of her books near her desk, 1 for the boy child for junk in his closet and 1 in the basement next to the bed) 
2 1x1 used as nightstand for our oldest platform bed. 

Our kitchen table is Ikea ( although we did not buy it new there, Found it on CL for a DEAL!)  My hubby sanded and restained the top darker and we painted the bottom.  people think we paid big $ for a table we got for $100.   I love it because it is HUGE!!!  8 to 9ft long.  Not all ikea furniture is particle board.  There are lots of pieces that are solid wood! 

Our closest Ikea is 20 mins away, its only 2 yrs old now.  Before that, we would plan our family vacation some summers around where we could stop at an ikea.  
I have lots of shelving / picture ledges from Ikea.  I have the Ribba ( retired now, but a similar one is called Mosslanda)  and the marietorp.  We have those in a few rooms for various things, not just picture frames!  

We also look at picture frames there before we buy anyplace else.  My kids LOVE their cheap picture frames for hanging stuff in their rooms, Everything from Posters to Pics they have taken)

My kids ( all teens)  love their sticks of live bamboo, we have  a few in he house that are over 5yrs old.  And they are cheap for adding a little bit of color and a live plant to your house or fish tank.  1.99! 

We have bought other plants from there as well, Those dont seem to last too long though.  I dont have a green thumb, but I do ok with other plants, but the cool ikea plants hate me.  lol.  The only ikea plant we have kept alive for more than 6mos is a cactus.  I do buy something called ODLA there.  They look like coca puffs, but they are little terra cotta balls.  perfect for putting into the bottom of pots for drainage!  I use them indoors and out.  some most of plants have done better with them in there!   I also like their flower pots, I have lots of different ones from there.  They have a large variety and they are cheaper than you find at other big box stores. 

I am sure I could go on and on and on as we go there at least 2x a month ( sometimes way more!) for something!  Just make sure when you go, you take your time and really look around, You will be shocked at how much stuff they have and how much of it you will find would be handy or nice to have!