Most of my furniture is second hand (quite a bit from my grandparents’ house, some from my parents, other stuff from second hand shops, someone’s old kitchen cabinets repurposed as units for the shed) or made myself (shelves mostly, although I’d like to get more ambitious). My dad has a big garage full of tools and bits of anything we used to have (furniture, bikes, fittings etc.), so there’s usually quite a bit of tinkering involved in any work on the house. If I still need something after trying those methods, I’ll usually go to a professional shop for things like kitchenware or anything that needs to be functional rather than beautiful. IKEA is another useful place to look as functionality, cost and space efficiency are important.
WRT the atmosphere among IKEA fans, I suppose it’s a little like Apple fans. You have the same clean lines in the design and presentation of the items so that you can try them out and imagine how they would fit your lifestyle. Obviously IKEA fans understand furniture on a deeper level than other people who just buy the finished product, and are maximising their living space to a greater extent than most other people. In the shop itself at least, everything just works and you can see the amount of thought that went into making things a little more functional than a normal item (if you can’t, its pointed out to you often enough). Most people are excited about moving anyway, so IKEA does a good job of preserving those good feelings of excitement and anticipation throughout your visit (and making sure you don’t get sidetracked by distractions such as your budget, needing food, seeing the passage of time through the windows or wanting to get one item and leave). Similarly to childbirth, the next time you think about getting furniture you only remember those good feelings of taking your furniture home to an admiring circle of friends and family, and the feeling of pride from viewing your own creation.
