$400 gift certificate for Ikea

$400 won't get you much these days at IKEA.

Their dishes and kitchenware is extremely reasonably priced and lasts forever. I've had sets of dishes, silverware, and serveware from Ikea that was beautiful and lasted over 20 years.

Meatballs and lingonberries.

I love Ikea, but yes their prices have gone up, especially on the bigger items. But, you can redo your kitchenware, towels, sheets & bedding, pillows, etc. Their outdoor & patio stuff is probably going on sale soon to clear things out for holidays.

R3, YTF.

What kitchenware specifically is good. Lord knows I don't need dishes and cutlery. 😱 I was thinking maybe throw pillows? They have some snazzy Scandinavian designs. I like the bright orange and yellow new glass vases.

100 rolls of those raspberry sandwich cookies

R7, YTF.

This is silly but cool. A red or purple gaming chair.

I had a houseplant I bought from there that lived for about 20 years. I killed it somehow when I moved to a new place. It didn't like change. That said, try some of their plants/trees and pots. Candles too.

Weird blue steel cabinet that looks kind of "that girl"

Whatever you get, OP, pay a little more and ask for extra screws.

Ikea is for broke college students, are you still in school Dear?

Broke college students aren't shopping there in 2025.

Neither are gay men with a job R14.

The Ikea near me is filled with frumpy straight couples and their ill-mannered brats. Most of them of look lower-middle class. I don't think a truly broke person could afford to buy furniture there.

I’d buy (or at least rent) something at Småland.

Ikea is mainly for people just starting out, maybe their first professional job out of college. Unless it's one of those ultra high paying ones like doctors, lawyers, finance, etc.

Bedding. Go nuts but cotton only.

Cheap trending lighting.

If you need to round out the amount, they carry imported grocery items as well. Most are dry items but they carry frozen stuff too.

I appreciate that IKEA doesn't try too hard to push their merchandise. Every single product is one word, in Swedish, with the English translation not seeming to be a thing. and many items in the marketplace have these hidden fearures that aren't over-explained.

And did you hear about the mile long IKEA store that's being built somewhere in the US? Too many people were getting lost in the store's current layouts

The MALM bed. Since they discontinued their best compact rolled spring mattress - all others are trash now - get one elsewhere.

NATTJASMIN bedsheets. cotton-lyocell stays cool and are a good price. DVALA cotton bedsheets are jersey knit, soft and reasonably priced.

The BILLY bookcase. I've had three of my own so far in my 45 years. Sturdy and inexpensive!

The garlic press and drinking glasses are well made and also don't break the bank.

The Billy bookcases, with or without glass doors, are really the bomb. There’s been nothing better since then. But I did assemble mine.

KittyDyke thank you. I thought about a mattress, as spring mattress, and carefully examined their offer last night with the assistance of AI. It turns out even the "natural" one - lots of natural materials, puts a layer of foam and a layer of latex between the sleeper and the springs, defeating half the attraction of springs - aeration. Yes, all their spring mattresses are now shit and I won't sleep on foam. I bought the special edition bright green Billy in April and really like it.

It's $399.99 so you'd blow the entire certificate, but I've owned their Alefjäll chair for about 5 years and it is a great desk chair IMO.

hey thanks that looks nice. is the vinyl sticky?

oh wait. its leather!? ok I will buy this I think. thanks.