ᐅ IKEA furniture has a noticeable smell of wood and finish.

Hi everyone,

I’m really struggling.
At the beginning of October, I set up a complete room with IKEA furniture: a Malm bed, Malm desk, Malm Expedit shelf, and a Pax wardrobe. All in black-brown color. I also got a Sultan mattress (Sultan Finnvik) with a slatted frame (Sultan Laxeby).

Since everything was assembled, there has been a constant odor in the room that smells strongly of wood or wood lacquer, which even gives me headaches. My lungs and bronchi also don’t feel good when I spend longer periods in the room.
So it’s not just the smell, but mainly the fumes (or whatever is coming off) that make it impossible for me to sleep there.

I have been ventilating the room almost around the clock since early October and have also tried lemon juice, vinegar, and coffee beans. All with only short-term or no success.

Does anyone have an idea how to get rid of this odor or fumes?
Or does anyone know how accommodating IKEA might be if I wanted to exchange or return everything (except maybe the mattress)? Would I have a chance?

I’d appreciate any advice.

Best regards,
solring

There is nothing you can do about that. I have experienced the same issue with Besta. In the end, the only option was to return it. Depending on the furniture store where you bought it, the return process may be more or less straightforward.

For all furniture you buy in the future, whether from IKEA or another retailer/manufacturer, you should always purchase only one piece at a time. Otherwise, you will never know if you react to all of them or just to a single item.

Hi solring!

If I were you, I would definitely contact Ikea headquarters about this. It can’t hurt. Maybe you happened to get a batch that others have already complained about?

I had the same experience with my Kivik sofas. However, I already knew beforehand that the sofas have a strong odor (thanks to Google)… and the smell disappeared after some time (it took about 6 weeks).

For those who couldn’t tolerate it, Ikea was very accommodating and accepted the "smelly" sofas back.

Hello to both of you,

Thank you very much for your answers.
To wrap this up (and maybe some of you are interested in what came out of it):

The odor and the symptoms only improved after I removed all the furniture from the room. So, it was actually due to all of them in some way.
Today, I spoke with IKEA customer service and am able to return the furniture as a goodwill gesture (they will also be picked up) and will get my money back.
They also offered the alternative of exchanging the furniture (including for a different color).

At least in this regard, I have to say they were really very accommodating. Now we just have to see if everything works out as agreed.

Best regards,
solring

Hello Solring,

Thank you for sharing the conclusion with us and not just venting.

It really shows how accommodating IKEA can be, doesn’t it?
Otherwise, Merry Christmas...