Can a DIYer beat IKEA in price?

Have we come to a point where it is simply cheaper to buy furniture than to make it yourself?

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SOCIAL:

[TheSwedishMaker]

For anyone concerned with the cost of labour. When me and my wife decided on building instead of buying - which is what this video is about - I would never go - yes but let's factor in my hourly rate and I would suspect a lot of other makers wouldn't either. And I think that comes with the fact that actually enjoy the making part - it's a hobby. With that said - hiring some other carpenter to do the job would cost a lot more.

[tugaric]

As a guy who lived in small houses, small roomes no space all is life. Seeing all the tools and space these youtubers have always blows my mind

[Jellylazer]

The real value lies in your ability to make it and not rely on cheaply ready made goods. Nothing will ever beat a handmade craftsman.

[derfpa]

My dad made some cheap tables for a party that consisted of an osb boards, a skirt and legs of 27x70 mm lumber. They were really sturdy and with a table cloth no one could tell they cost 370 sek/36 USD for a 2.4x0.9m table! Not heirloom quality, but they lasted for many year's and then the material was later reused in other projects.

[tombiggs]

My dad enjoyed woodworking and made many pieces for their house. But he took joy in making furniture for my brother, sister, and I, during our young adult lives. We had not much money to buy furniture, so this was a wonderful boost to our households. It was mostly simply designed pine furniture, practical to use. I've always had the opinion that furniture is here to serve me, I'm not here to serve it, so simple practical pieces were perfect for our life. And when our children came along, he loved making child-size play tables, cradles, stools, dollhouses, etc. Dad passed away in 1998; Our children are adults now and living on their own, but they still have fond memories of his gifts.

I have always done basic wood workings, sufficient to maintain the house, or repair old furniture as needed. Only in the last 10 years have I gotten serious about woodworking. It does help to have purpose.

[mymemeplex]

I've been getting old solid Oak table tops for free off local marketplaces. Old oak is not fashionable anymore, certainly not the brown oak from the 70's and 80's. A lot of people who boeg that type of furniture from that era are clearing out their house for one reason or another. Many thriftstores aren't even accepting them anymore cause they don't sell. Lots of good wood on those tables, and the dressers can be used for lumber as well.

[davebauerart]

The tables look great and of course the satisfaction and ability to get exactly what you want is worth a lot.

[JesperMakes]

Great video Pierre! Love the slider shot! Good call on the center piece. Make stuff you need that lasts - best thing I heard in a long time..

[matthewlaberge]

I am literally sitting at the Ikea table that serves as the inspiration for your design, and I too added a 3D printed drawer to the underside in the exact same spot as the one you added. Excellent video!

[ETOE]

Woodworking problem in a kind of way I run into this week. I cut my wooden project with a laser. It was super hot this week, the laser got hot as well and after some cuts the performance dropped, the laser couldn`t cut through with the same settings, I cut again, forgot to copy all the shapes, cut again, had some bondo filler in the plywood which the laser wasn`t able to cut through in this particular spot, gave up for this day. Came in the next day with a cooled brain and a cooled laser. Did some cuts again and could finish the project after loosing half a sheet of plywood. What I learned: Heat melts brains and drops the performance of lasers. My advice: stay cool, but not too cool when working on projects where brain power and laser power is involved.

[SteveBellCreates]

Your so right making things for yourself is so rewarding. Plus you can custom make them to suit your own home. When I was a younger with a family I made everything well almost everything as I couldn’t afford to buy then and some of those pieces are still in use today . Great video as always Pierre

[tonyray]

My daughter needed a custom size desk on wheels, after scouring Amazon & EBay for donor desks & who knows what the quality of the thing would have been I took a trip to Ikea. I found a table with steel legs angled like yours for £95, but it was 300mm too long and 100mm to tall but I realised I could cut it down and recreate the corner leg joints on one end. The quality of the steel was surprisingly good and yes the top is particle board but I was able to save the hot glues edge and reapply it on the cut end. She’s an artist so when it gets too scruffy I can do something else. I cut the legs down and 3D printed inserts to take 50mm castors. I think the thing cost me £125 but she got a custom piece in a weekend.

[loadiam]

I don't think beating IKEA on price is really the goal. I think the reward is having three tables you built yourself in your home or barn in your case rather than three mass produced tables which have no soul, no character. Since moving to Sweden my home has been full of the crap for years, it could almost have been a catalogue photo or one of their display rooms from time to time throughout the years. I would just love to reduce the dependency or need to browse through the IKEA, MIO or Jysk products range and remove it from my home preferring to open up SketchUp or something similar and make ideas come to life. This is why we follow channels like yours, looking for inspiration and like minded individuals.

[tonoosterhoff]

In my quest I ended up building violins (which is a special direction for a software developer), now almost finishing the second one. And the next step of course, taking lessons to be able to play that thing.

[ltpinecone]

Your tables turned out pretty awesome!

[rob]

Your videos make me smile. Your transparency in your process is lovely, inspiring and just reflect my own processes in making stuff. Self made things are priceless. Keep doing, thanks from Switzerland.

[hassleoffa]

No ... but a DIYer isn't going to build a bookshelf out of hardboard with a corrugated cardboard core wrapped in a laser-printed photo of wood.

[andreasbentz]

Hey, I can relate to the hesitation to start, that you mention at 07:18. Not sure if you know Adam Savage - on of the two Mythbusters. On his channel he spoke about "how to avoid the death-spiral of perfectionism" which is what keeps me being hesitant to start. In the end, thinking it over and over again in order to squeeze out any imperfections is always a theoretical exercise. I found, that in reality, there is always something happening, that you didn't think of, or where an assumption is proved wrong...

Speaking of beating IKEA: I started doing that not because of the price, but because of the decline in quality, that IKEA took. We still own my first kitchen, I bought from IKEA about 35 years ago (when I didn't had a workshop at all). It has long outlasted the "25 years IKEA functional warranty", they gave those days and the material ist still in good shape (highly compressed melamin coated particle board for the cabinets, solid wood for the doors, glas shelves). The kitchen moved three times now, and the challenge (aka hobby) was always to fit it into non-standard situations.

We did buy additional cabinets, but stopped doing that for the last re-build. It was about 10 years ago, when IKEA swapped out the old "Faktum" kitchen series to the new "Method". The quality was so shitty, and you could feel, that the only purpose of the changes was to save on material and weight (profit, logistics) and durability was definitely sacrified. Fortunately I could lay my hands on some spare cabinets, when they sold off the old Faktum material, since I know, there will be some changes to the kitchen still to come in our house.

Our house is scattered with old IKEA furniture pieces. Well sought out (mostly massive still wood) and made to last. The only thing that we bought from IKEA recently, were new leather covers for our Poäng swing chairs. The old leather was worn out (three generations of cats did a great job on them) and IKEA sold the new ones at 50%, so I was afraid that they will discontinue them and come up with some vegan material. I still like their always up to date nordic design, but when it comes to quality, they lost me completely.

When I decide to make a piece of furniture (or when we bought one in the early days) I put a lot of emotion into it. If it breaks, I fix it. If it is of no use for me any more, I give it away to someone who has use for it. And if that's not possible, I take it apart and re-use the material. That is why I cannot relate to the "fast-furniture trend".

But I guess, I'm just a strange old guy 😉

Thnks for sharing your table-experience! Man I envy you for that barn 😍

Cheers
Andreas

[MichaelTavel]

So true! It's not just about having a hobby, it's about having a purpose for the hobby that increases joy exponentially.

[HawkXe]

Labor is the most expensive part of any build unless you're using some exotic material. I was going to build a built-in for my living room, but it made more sense to go with IKEA HAVSTA combo's rather than doing the work myself.