If cheap furniture made by compressing glue and sawdust together existed 100 years ago, I bet it would have sold well.
Same goes for shoes. Everyone’s wearing terrible plastic stuff nowadays.
People bought mail order houses, which I think confirms the popularity of lightweight and portable big purchase items.
My grandparents deliberately saved up for the expensive oak furniture. It was meant to last the rest of their lives (which it did). They had a different mindset than me and you who want something nice looking that doesn’t burden the bank account too much
That and I didn’t want to buy solid oak furniture when I lived in apartments and had to move on a dime because the landlord wanted to jack up rent or pull something… Again.
Chipboard was one of those things invented twice simultaneously during WWII, as the Germans and Americans looked around for resources to exploit and noticed the massive amounts of sawdust they had piling up. Chipboard cabinetry and furniture starts to emerge in the 1950’s. Ikea was founded in 1943 and started selling furniture in 1948. So cheap particle board furniture existed ~80 years ago, and did indeed sell well.
Removed by mod
I wonder why simple shoes (like a piece of wood and some cord) picked up in the East but not in the West.
Dutch are known for their wooden clogs, no?
Yes, but both that and the style linked in the other comment are more complex than the Japanese style sandals. They are just boards with some holes drilled and knotted cord put through the holes. Some have two other pieces of wood underneath them to raise them off the ground a bit (maybe they work better in mud?).
They look like something you could take an afternoon and make enough new ones for your whole family, if you’ve got some wooden planks and cord.
Clogs look like they’d each take a while to carve and would require more skill to craft.
Though I don’t know how common either of those were among the poorest of each region.
They were picked up in the West as well, but not as well known probably because they weren’t viewed as fashionable. They’re called Pattens FYI
Patten (shoe) - Wikipedia - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patten_(shoe)
…psshhhhh - as if i’ll ever be able to afford kids to someday give me grandkids…
…i’ll die destitute and alone in a gutter somewhere and i’ve made my peace with that…
The one on the left took 5 months to make by monks in Tibet slave camps brought to you by China. The one on the right was made in 437.23 seconds by a Tormak 7000 series CNC discombobulizer 2000.
Sounds like an appliance from The Sims.
Left: useless because it’s ugly as hell and won’t fit in anywhere. Right: useless because it falls apart if you sneeze at it.
The amount of dust it will collect in all those crevices !!
Just order your maid to dust it twice daily with a feather duster, duh
Actually, the right looks like a Kallax, which are probably the sturdiest item in their catalogue given the walls are like 3cm (1.2 in) thick. I’ve taken them apart and reassembled them before, and unlike every other piece of Ikea furniture I’ve done that to, they’re actually just as stable and reliable as before.
You mean one portal to hell vs one support call line to Sweden.
What’s the difference?
The Lion, the Witch, and the SMÅGÖRA
The Blåhaj, the Witch, and the Smågöra
Another Zeducation fan. I see you.
Here’s a picture of the furniture my grandparents left me:
My grandparents didn’t even update their will when my sister and I were born.
Neither did my grandparents. Likewise, my parents didn’t update their will when my children and nieces were born.
The attitude among all generations has been: your own kids inherit, and they distribute to their kids as they see fit.
I wasn’t in my grandparents wills, but I ended up with some of their furniture.
What’s a will?
If you actually have good parents, there is no need to. Unless you’re over 18 the money typically goes to your parents anyway.
A whole a house or just this room?
Anyway: Amazing.
All I got was the IKEA family card. Free coffee. Yeah.
Nice floor tho
Meh, the cost of each is vastly different
Yes, that is part of the joke.
Too exhausted to grab images but…
- The amount I spent on college versus the amount that they spent on college
-
their pension versus my pension
-
cost of their home versus cost of my home
-
amount of adults in their household that had to work to support a family versus amount of adults in my household that have to work to support a family
-
Their CEO pay gap versus my CEO pay gap
-
number of summers where they took a week-long family vacation versus number of summers that I took a week-long family vacation
-
cost of a family trip to Disney for them versus no fucking way I could even consider affording that shit, let alone paying an overall subscription for quicker lines and somehow also individual extra charges per ride to get on those rides in less than three hours.
Re:costs, costs always go up. But relative costs are still crazy worse.
Confirmation bias: all the shite furniture from 1800s has rotted to dust already
Edit for full disclosure: I’ve exclusively bought antique furniture. I’m basically a shill for big-auction
Sure. A lot has rotted away, but much modern furniture is designed with so much MDF and other manufactured wood products that aren’t resilient in the least. Moisture will destroy them, they take gashes super easy, and are soft wood.
I’d think the furniture our grandparents had would be more likely to have been solid wood.
That’s not to say there aren’t solid hardwood pieces being made today. But they are extremely expensive and are competing in a space with poor regulation of descriptions and all the flat pack Chinese imported stuff thats literally 10% of the price of good furniture that will last.
Solid hardwood furniture is a luxury.
Balsa is hardwood Yew is softwood
Yew is 16x stronger
I saw a headline that Ikea was considering a rental program because there’s a cultural understanding that flat packed* furniture especially that made of veneered chipboard is disposable.
And yeah at least Ikea puts in some effort to make their furniture decent. Much of what you find at retailers is just chip board shit, bookcases that’ll collapse under the weight of actual books, etc.
My strategy is, I’m a woodworker. I’m slowly replacing anything cheap and crap in my life with oak, cherry and walnut.
*had to correct myself from saying flatpak there, Linux has me trained.
I just moved into a house a couple years ago. While I’m mostly getting used furniture, I’m slowly looking into making my own and learning to repair what’s out there.
I’m really bad at staining or painting. I never feel like what I do comes out even.
Ikea has a lot of chip board furniture but they also have some decent solid wood furniture for a good price.
It’s usually pine but still for the price it’s a decent quality furniture that could last for a good time in good condition.
I bought a modern well made dresser from some exotic wood, cost me roughly €900 amd it got damaged after moving but i haven’t taken the time to repair it as it’s only visual.
That thing is solid af, it has more hidden supports than it needs. I could probably park a car on top and it would withstand the weight. (Obv. i haven’t tested that lol)
We went shopping for a tv cabinet and 99% turned out to be particle board but they still had the audacity to charge between €1200 and €1800 euro’s.
Yea. It’s really bad looking for something online. They may be under the “solid wood” category for material, but they still are 90% particle board.
I prefer spending extra knowing that I’ll have something for decades and not have to replace it in a year or two. Fortunately for me, about 80% of my homes furniture is from Habitat for Humanity. They are fantastic for having a good selection of quality stuff for cheap. Some might need a little repair, but they tend to only accept decent stuff in the first place.
Also the one from their grandma cost 3 months wage at the time and they probably got it as their wedding gift. Totally comparable to 25$ worth of composite 👍
Part of the problem with those antique pieces is that they’re a bitch to move.
I think it’s survivorship bias, but yes
Same with old appliances.
And old cars…
And old people
This is true. I’m getting close to 50 and I’m already a good 37% dust.
And old toys
Even sex toys?
I have a prehistoric dildo, it still works perfectly.
What do you mean, “just a rock”?
The only thing my kids will inherit from me is ADHD.
What Douglas Coupland calls semi-disposable Swedish furniture.
I mean, not anytime soon, but hopefully eventually.
Then you have until eventually to acquire a giant hand carved wardrobe to leave them.
I have some work to do…
Now, I’m not sure what you do for a living, but personally, as a software engineer, I know that most people in my career line usually end up as either carpenters or farmers as their career peak. I’m more partial to the farming branch myself, but if you go carpenter, you can leave your grandkids some fancy ass furniture.
Woodworker here, I’ve already built some things that will last longer than I will. Not so sure about “fancy ass” but they’re not particle board.
Grandkids? In this economy?!
Meh… I’m not the best woodworker but I’m not terrible. I’d hope by that time I can at least leave them a decent handcrafted stained table or chair or something. No giant frescoes but nice routered edges on solid wood with a good burn+stain and a thick layer of lacquer.
