Alfonso Cuarón's "Ikea"

[Espresso]

@jsroberts

I was comparing IKEA and Apple fans - I get the impression that both companies like to massage your ego as an important part of the marketing process. In reality, most people are just putting a few pieces of wood together to make a piece of IKEA furniture, or doing much the same as anyone else if they buy an Apple project. Still, that little amount of effort to change OS or assemble furniture and the short term satisfaction of having something that seems more functional than what other people have can make you feel that you are on a different level as a consumer, especially when other people claim that they can’t understand the system.

I guess it’s a pretty good analogy. Personally, I stopped buying into that whole Ikea way of thinking some time ago, and just started seeing it as a budget furniture store that puts you to work as part of the bargain, though I don’t deny I’d probably go back if I had a kitchen to remodel, for example. Similarly, with Apple products (which I still buy and use), I no longer get any particular satisfaction from being different, and have abandoned the idea that being an Apple user means I have any special insight into the universe because, well, it doesn’t. All I’m really doing is buying tools and toys from one company instead of another. (I keep on buying them partly out of familiarity with the system, and partly because they are usually well-built and last long enough to more than make up for the price premium.)

@jsroberts

As for its durability, there are worse places and many people get bored of their furniture after a very short time anyway (how many 30+ year old sets of furniture do you see around?). If people are going to be getting rid of their furniture every 15 years anyway, I’d rather it wasn’t solid wood.

It isn’t hard to find furniture, even in sets if that’s what you want, of almost any age you care to mention. That doesn’t mean it’s all good, or tasteful, or well made. But at least if it’s wood and well-made, it can be kept in circulation indefinitely. And if it’s wood and it’s falling apart or hopelessly ugly, at least it’s a potential source of salvageable materials. When particleboard and melamine are done, AFAIK that’s the end of the line. (Correct me if I’m wrong.) And some of the very ugliest pieces I see in my thrifting adventures are made of eternal metal and/or glass.

@AliceWeir

Laughing about the Danish Modern thing. You are young! (Congrats.) My mom filled our home with that stuff. To you - ‘stylishly retro’. To me - ‘just plain old’.

There’s definitely an element of nostalgia. I grew up around that stuff to a certain extent, but we also had a lot of older pieces (a few of which are now in my home), and then in the 80s Ikea came into the mix but it was rarely considered worthy of being placed where an adult visitor might see it.

What I like about mid-century style, whether Scandinavian or not, is that it’s generally (though not always) simple and understated and it’s relatively easy to find well-made pieces – of course there’s junk, too, always has been and always will be.

So yeah, give me 50s steel-and-formica kitchen table, still going strong, over anything comparable from Ikea, any day. I’ll also take my 30s bookcase, in a way an “Ikea piece” of its time, over anything from Ikea. And so on.

@AliceWeir

eventually realized that stone, metal, and glass are what is required. Wood only lasts if it’s fossilized. Otherwise, it’s ALL just a matter of time, and therefore disposable stuff.

You’re being a little hard on wood, IMO. Properly handled and cared for, it should last hundreds of years. Just semantics I suppose, but if something is built to last four, five or more times my maximum lifespan, I don’t consider it disposable. Of course, if you can’t use it for health reasons that’s a different story.