yeah, a lot of ikea stuff is nice. personally, tho, i think i'd rather get a bunch of little items from them. they make a ton of neat little things that look cool. media storage, towel racks, some TV stands... stuff like that. furnishing a whole house or apartment with all ikea products would be really interesting, but you have to expect to pay a lot of money, no matter where you shop.

and actually a lot of their furniture is hardwood, not only veneer. i have a hardwood futon, my brother's got a bunch of hardwood shelves and a TV stand. i'm not too sure about the quality issues people talk about, because i haven't had any problems so far.

but i would have to agree with samson, that i don't think the prices for some of the larger items are that spectacular. go find a catalog, and take a look thru it. their website doesn't have shit on it.

scandinavian design has really stylish looking things, too, very much like ikea. one difference i noticed from shopping there a few times is that almost EVERYTHING is veneer - which means almost no hardwood. its alright, i mean its not like veneered furniture is bad or anything, but scandinavian design is also pretty damn expensive. at those prices, i would personally expect hardwood.... ikea at least uses it more often, and doesn't charge nearly as much as scandinavian design..