Furnication

New Yorker’s Guide to IKEA

Posted October 21st, 2008 by Vin

Buying furniture in Manhattan can be expensive. Savvy New Yorkers know where to find the few cheap furniture stores in New York or will get used furniture through craigslist. But, for a wide and deep selection of every kind of furniture you need, IKEA is your answer.

Ikea Store

Unfortunately, getting furniture from IKEA isn’t easy. Like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, you must overcome three challenges before you prove yourself worthy to drink from the Swedish discount furniture grail.

1. How to Get There?
There are two IKEA stores and neither of them are in Manhattan. The two comparable stores are in New Jersey and on the southern tip of Brooklyn. Unless you live around the Port Authority and are going on a weekend, you are probably better off visiting the Brooklyn store which IKEA provides transportation to 7 days a week.

IKEA New Jersey Store - IKEA provides a free shuttle bus on Saturdays and Sundays (no bus on weekdays). The bus makes a round trip from the Port Authority Terminal (8th avenue and 42nd st.) Gate #5 on the lower concourse level near Academy Bus line. The bus leaves every half hour from 10:00 am to 2:30 pm. The return trip from the store to the Port Authority Terminal leaves every half hour from noon to 6:00 pm.

IKEA Brooklyn Store - IKEA provides two methods of getting to their Brooklyn store: a water taxi from Pier 11 and a shuttle bus from nearby subway stops including the 2,3,4,5,M,R Borough Hall stop. For more information, check out IKEA’s helpful directions page for their Brooklyn store.

2. How to get it delivered?
Delivery is pretty expensive and most people just carry the furniture out with them. IKEA charges a base delivery fee of $99 for their New Jersey store and $79 for their Booklyn store. Rates go up if you need delivery same day or, regrettably, live on a 5th floor walk up. Overall, paying $100 for delivery doesn’t make sense for the $50 coffee table you just bought. Also, as you will find out from challenge #3, the furniture comes in easy to carry flat boxes.

For more information, check out detailed delivery information for the New Jersey and Brooklyn stores. You may get a better deal by using a third-party service like this new york based IKEA delivery service.

3. How do I assemble it?
The third and final challenge of IKEA is that the furniture literally comes in a 100 pieces and it will take you a long afternoon to assemble it. I usually like to pour myself a glass of scotch while doing it though last time I started building a bookcase and ended up with a modern lamp. If you stay away from the scotch and follow the instructions, it isn’t that bad and it comes with all the tools you need. If you really don’t want to assemble it, the stores offer assembly services, but the amount you will pay might defeat the purpose of going to IKEA in the first place.

When you overcome these three challenges, you will be enjoying your nice new furniture and can spend the money you saved on two drinks at a New York bar. If you want to buy three drinks at said bar, then I recommend visiting the IKEA hacker blog which shows you how to put together IKEA furniture without actually paying for it.

IKEA photo by Flickr’s dougww