"Shrunken heads, narwhal tusks, anteater skeletons, taxidermied flamingoes, hydrocephalic cows, Victorian fetuses, Furbies, a giant hairball from a cow's stomach, Napoleon's death mask, dodo bird bones, [and] jars of the excrement of celebrities (including Amy Winehouse and Kylie Minogue)."

The difference is that IKEA is not hawking its laminated product lines as solid wood or wood veneer. They come right out and tell you what you are buying. A lot of furniture stores (especially the discount stores) compare their products to much higher priced quality made furniture as if they were the same product. …

My bedroom set (malm, not top tier Ikea) is on 5 years and a corporate move. I have Billy book shelves that are on almost 10 years. I could have paid 10 times as much for "real" furniture, then sold it if I moved/ remodeled, and took a major hit. Or in the same time the "real furniture" would have depreciated the…

Additionally, many of their products are now solid wood. It's nice they list the composition of the product on their site.

It's a small space solution and it's actually pretty clever. On one side the table works as a kitchen table, and on the other side it functions as a desk. So one table, two uses, but without the dreaded needing to clear the table every time the function needs to change (because the sides are separated by the wall).

Or you can just build it yourself. I started furniture building as a way to save some money since I was super poor at the time and hated how empty my house was. I was surprised about how easy and fun it is.

(if you're into the Scandinavianesque thing)

And vice versa. The inspiration goes both ways. Designers often like Ikea furniture enough that they design and fabricate high quality versions. I rather like that sideboard, for instance. I just happen to think it would be even better if it were solid walnut or maple, and used nicer joinery.

You get what you pay for in most cases but this stuff is reasonable. However if I can buy 4 tables for the price of a high end one that has good styling, I will. I like that when the kids and animals bash up all of the household furniture, I am not out a months paycheck to replace it.

I did a total WTF on the picture/view from the other side. Why is there a table poking through a free standing wall? How is this functional? Why would you want this? Is this what you do if you have two rooms but the budget for only a single table? yuck.

This is right on! Furthermore, with the Ikea stuff that is solid wood it's often times made of deal. You can separate the decent Ikea stuff from the probably-shouldn't-buy Ikea stuff by seeing if you can sink your fingernail into the wood. If you have no problem making a mark (or make a deep mark) then move on.…

You're not really understanding things correctly. "Solid Wood" isn't terribly relevant, in terms of fine wood-working and true "furniture grade" pieces. The three defining components are: core substrate, veneer material, and construction.

Normally Ikea has awesome inspiration rooms, but I'm not feeling this wall lol.

Isn't this going into a lab where most likely they'll be cramped for space and there will be other equipment stacked on both sides and on top of it? They'll have to attach plaques to hold all the bio stickers as mentioned by other commenters.

The shape and color reminds me of the old purple iMac.