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Read that particle board furniture doesn't survive in Hawaii. How about the higher end IKEA Hemnes bedroom furniture of MDF covered with laminate?
Anyone bring IKEA stuff over from the Mainland?
Was going to buy, then ship the unopened flat boxes in the small container we're having Matson handle for us.
Any other furniture types that don't do well in Hawaii?
Most of the container will be filled with my office equipment/materials/reference books plus family photos - not bringing things that are easily replaced on the island.
We have IKEA desks, with no problems whatsoever. These are the birch laminated desks, and we had them shipped over in boxes for assembly here.
There are lots of the laminated white melamine cabinets in use as well. The problem with those doesn't seem to be humidity but poor manufacturing, as they usually start to peel at a corner, which snags on your clothing and then the laminate cracks off. But that happened on the mainland too.
Can't speak the the Hemnes 'model' of furniture, but I think you're gong to be fine if you are in most locations on the islands. That said, some areas have much more humidity than others. We're on the dry side of Maui. If we were on the wetter side, it could be different. It will also depend on whether you keep windows open, run your AC, or are located closer to the beach and get saltier air.
For the family photos, be sure to pack those well sealed in plastic bags, just in case there's any moisture during the travels. You might also consider it a good project to scan them all to have digital copies as backups against loss in any way. If you have too many photos and/or too little time, consider using a service like ScanCafe.com. We used them and it was great.
So happy that I can get some new things (to be assemled there) from IKEA!
Yeppers, been scanning as I've been sorting the family photos. Think I'm going to add some silica packages to the plastic storage containers that I have them in.
We haven't decided on Oahu or Maui, running the numbers based on hubby's monthly retirement funds. I'll want to work, just because I would go crazy otherwise. Have a diverse background so I'm sure I could find something...also clean up well. haha
DS' room filled with Ikea furniture and so far no problem. Even we've been living in Hawaii only for 10 months but the very same furniture survived the humidity in Miami the previous 2 years.
Folks in Hawaii usually don't do as much blow-dry or make up as they do on the mainland. Make up doesn't do well in heat and humidity and it isn't comfortable. The humidity is also why folks prefer natural fabrics over synthetics and loose fashions over fitted fashions.
The IKEA furniture may do well, or it may not. It all depends on the area you will be in. There is humidity as well as salt air to contend with. Also Hawaii houses are MUCH SMALLER than their mainland counterparts. Don't bring too much furniture or you won't have any place to put it.
Antique furniture with hide glue generally isn't too happy with humidity, either.
Cool. I've been in Boca in July...about killed me. Shower, blow dry hair, make-up, step out side...head back in, start again from Shower,....
Can I ask why you moved to Hawaii, also what island are you on?
DH's job, we're currently in Honolulu Oahu. I'm not sure if the way we keep our apartment air conditioned that makes the furniture last. We never leave the door/windows open here or in Miami because of the dust. Always on comfortable 75ºF during the day and 70ºF when we sleep.
I love airconditioning but DH likes the windows wide open. I'll contain myself at Ikea, I know that the sq. footage will be smaller than our current 1500 sq ft condo.
1,500 square foot condo? We just bought a three bedroom house which has only two thirds of that square footage, 1,024 square feet, and it's not considered particularly "small". Also the new house has loads of windows so there isn't much actual wall space to put the tall bookcases we already have, so even though we aren't moving from a large home to a small home, we still aren't going to be able to fit the existing furniture in it. Folks do seem to prefer to buy mattresses on the mainland if they can get them here inexpensively because of the cost of island bought mattresses. That might be something to see about buying on the mainland.
We are also completely changing the style of our things because the new house is a completely different color scheme than the old one. It would be very difficult for me to buy furniture for a house I haven't seen.
My experience with partical board furniture is this: our daughter lived in Manoa/Makiki for 3 yrs and the partical board desk and book cases just crumbled.
However, we live on the dry side of the island and I see some of our neighbors use it. I can't say how long it will last, though.
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