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Don’t Hate Yourself for Shopping at Ikea—Even the Rich Do It

Ah, Ikea. It was there for you when you needed cheap furniture in the student and post-graduation years, and you had plenty of time to sit around puzzling over those obtuse, word-free assembly instructions. Yet even as you got older, you kept going back. Time and again you’d say, “I’m too old to buy furniture from Ikea,” but then you’d actually look at the price of a real couch or a bookshelf … and back to the big blue warehouse you’d go. (Plus, those meatballs are tasty!) Next thing you know, you’re bringing your kids and dropping them off at Småland. Will you ever break free of the Swedish embrace?

Well, put your furniture-slumming guilt aside. It turns out, Ikea is all the rage even among those who can afford to go full Louis XIV.

This surprising stamp of approval came to light in a recent New York Times profile of high-end home decor expert Miles Redd, whose glamorous interiors have been featured in publications ranging from Vogue to Architectural Digest. Yet even though he has the aesthetic acumen and deep pockets to afford nicer furniture than God, his vacation home on Fire Island is decked out in—you got it—Ikea.

“Miles Redd has made a career out of his love for custom flounce and flourish,” the Times reported. “So how did he end up with an Ikea-filled bungalow?”

Good question. Meanwhile, the article led a blogger at trend site Elite Daily to remark, “It’s recently come to my attention that Ikea’s newest fans aren’t the young and recently graduated, but wealthy influencers who could buy anything but literally choose Ikea.” Why? “Because how cute that it’s so cheap!” 

So is cheap truly the new chic for home furnishings? It sure seems so if you look at who else has been spotted navigating the labyrinth of Ikea: Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, for example, and Jennifer Lawrence, who needed a couch and claims she couldn’t bring herself to pay the steep prices she was seeing in furniture stores across Los Angeles.

“So I bought one from Ikea,” the “Hunger Games” star admitted in an interview with The Telegraph. “It doesn’t matter how much money I make, unfairness in prices really fires me up. Like shopping in L.A. and a T-shirt costs $150.”

If you’ve ever tried to buy a couch anywhere other than Ikea, you know exactly what Lawrence is talking about. When I first moved into my co-op in Brooklyn many years ago, my husband and I bled our savings dry to buy a $4,000 sectional couch, presuming that for that price, it must be amazing quality and would last forever. Right?

Nope. Within a few years the leather ripped, then a leg broke off. Once we finally chucked that awful expensive (and wobbly) couch, guess where we got our replacement? Ikea. It cost us $1,200, and we love it. We even brag about how it’s from Ikea.

Bottom line is, there’s no longer a need to feel embarrassed if you, too, own a Docksta table or Stockholm rug. Flaunt it! A bargain is a bargain—and, if the trendsetters are to be believed, they’re back in style.

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