Ikea Malm Bedroom Furniture By KapMan80 on Jan 02, 2009 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Having bought my flat on a budget I decided that Ikea was my best bet for some affordable furniture - whilst I managed to scavenge some living room furniture from my parent's house it was my bedroom that was desperately in need of the essentials: a bed, some drawers and a wardrobe (the latter being either temporary or permanent depending on what I could find). So I took a trip to Ikea one Saturday (which I must add was the first of many trips over the six months which followed) and having spent the best part of 2 hours looking around, managed to spend approximately £650 on a bed, chest of drawers, bedside cabinets and a permanent wardrobe, all from the Ikea "MALM" range. Not bad at all.

The first thing that I love about Ikea furniture is the ease of assembly. Ikea furniture is generally no frills and designed to be installed without the use of an electric drill. Even my bed did not require a drill at any point - only the help of an extra person which in this case was my poor girlfriend! I reckon it must have taken around 3hrs to fully assemble the bed, bedside cabinets and chest of drawers and a further 2 hours to assemble the wardrobe, which I did the following day.

Once I had assembled everything I was pleased with how solid the furniture was. Granted, the bedside table was a little fragile but not to an extent which raised any alarm bells. The wardrobe and drawers felt solid enough and I was especially impressed with the bed which was very modern, low to the ground and felt very secure.

Eighteen months on my bed and wardrobe are still fully in tact, but the chest of drawers and bedside cabinets are a bit knackered: whilst the frames are still robust it is the drawers themselves that are coming apart.

In my opinion, Ikea furniture is great for homes which need to be furnished in a hurry or on a budget. But I have noticed that the more fragile elements like drawers and cabinets fall apart fairly quickly and require "patch works" to keep them in tact. If I had a lot more money in my pocket then I probably wouldn't buy my major furniture from Ikea and would instead seek out an alternative of higher quality. Despite this, there are plenty of bargains to be had at Ikea and it is great for the typical young first time buyer like myself, and perhaps maybe even for a spare room which wouldn't be used very often - in fact, my folks have bought a few Ikea items for my old bedroom now that I have moved out!

The way I see it, Ikea bedroom furniture offers decent value for money. If you purchase Ikea furniture with lower expectations about longevity then you are more like to be pleasantly surprised in the long run.