IKEA the Right Choice

If you were in Ikea yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, you might have noticed a guy busy dismantling a bed near the customer service area. Yeah! That was me.

Our new apartment is completely bare except for the electrical switches and plumbing. As we didn’t take the renovation package offered by the developer, we have to do it ourselves, one step at a time.

Do it yourself (DIY) is still a new concept here in Malaysia. However, as prices of services go up, I reckon that DIY is going to get more and more popular here in the future. Ikea is the pioneer of this movement (at least in furniture) and creating more Prosumers (a consumer who is also a producer) in the process. Anyway, going back to my story...

- First of all, we have to fix the lights (13 in total) and 3 ceiling fans.
- Then fix grills to the windows and door. At the same time, fix railings for the curtains.
- Next would come other furnishings including wardrobes and kitchen cabinets.

As money is a constraint, we decided to go for stuff, which is good quality, reasonably priced, yet doesn’t look cheap. Some of you might be asking “Where Got like that?” (Manglish).

Read on my friend and you will discover that quality, style and cheap prices do indeed come together (sometimes).

Of course, our first destination was the Ikea store in Damansara (5 minutes away from our new apartment). We paid several visits this month to look for ideas, as well as to survey the prices. Before you ask, yes! We also visited dozens of furniture malls around the Klang valley as even paid second hand furniture shops in Taman Tun a visit.

After looking around quite a bit, we were either not happy with the quality or the price. Some “Super Sale” deals came with hidden conditions or were of crappy quality. The “quality” stuff came at super prices too.

In the end, we have decided to completely furnish our house with Ikea stuff. Well! Actually partly furnished.

We spent last Friday and Saturday buying all the lights, light bulbs, 2 ceiling fans, several curtain railings, 1 Queen size bed, a single bed, a wardrobe and a table. Apart from the fans, we bought all the rest from Ikea – all of it for less than Rm1000/

Which brings to the first part of my post. What was I doing dismantling a bed?
No! I did not get a part time job in Ikea.

On Friday, we discovered this place in Ikea, which we had never explored before – the ‘As Is’ section. This section carries old showroom furniture (technically, it’s not second hand), slightly damaged stuff and old stock.

Even though the stuff here does not have any warranty, a lot of it is in great condition. We bought the table, the curtain railings and the two beds here. The Queen size bed was a real bargain (we got it at a fraction of their real price) because it had a small chip on the headboard - nothing that a small paint job won’t fix.

Anyway, while paying for the stuff, the cashier mentioned that we would have to dismantle the furniture ourselves with tools provided at the service counter. It was not something I had been looking forward to actually but I had no choice or so I thought.

I spent nearly an hour dismantling the two beds with help from the Ikea staff (and their tiny S shaped screws), when we casually asked one of them about the delivery services. The guy gave me a strange look and told me: “Oh! If you use our home delivery service you don’t have to dismantle the furniture. Our staff will do it for you.”

[NOTE: All delivery within the Klang valley will cost you RM65/ for any number of items. If you want them to assemble the furniture for you, that's an extra 5% of the cost of the products.]

I felt like a complete idiot - all the hard work for nothing. I could only look at the bright side. At least I know how to dismantle them we want to move anywhere next time.

Would love to design the kitchen and fix the cabinets myself – when we have more money. And probably all the stuff will be from Ikea.