IKEA furniture smells like wood/varnish

Hi guys,

I am getting desperate.
At the beginning of October, I furnished an entire room from Ikea. A Malm bed, MALM desk, MALM Expedit, and a Pax wardrobe. All in black-brown color. Along with a Sultan mattress (Sultan Finnvik) with slatted frame (Sultan Laxeby).

Since everything was set up, I have a permanent smell in the room, which smells extremely like wood or wood varnish and also gives me headaches. My lungs/bronchi also don’t appreciate it when I stay in the room for a longer time.
So it’s not just the smell, but especially the fumes (or whatever is coming out) that make it impossible for me to sleep in the room.

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

Does anyone have an idea how I can get rid of this smell/fumes?
Or does anyone know how accommodating IKEA is if I wanted to exchange/return all of this (except maybe the mattress)? Would I have a chance there?

I’m grateful for any tip.

Best regards,
solring

You won't be able to do anything about that. I experienced the same with Besta. In the end, the only option was to return it. Depending on which furniture store you bought it from, this is more or less easy.

For all the furniture you buy in the future, whether from IKEA or any other retailer/manufacturer, you should always buy only one piece of furniture at a time, otherwise you'll never know if you are compatible with all or only with an individual one.

Hi solring!

If I were you, I would definitely contact the Ikea headquarters about it. It can't hurt. Maybe you just 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 stink terribly (thanks to Google).... and after some time the smell disappeared (it took about 6 weeks).

By the way, Ikea was very accommodating with the people who couldn't tolerate it and took back the "stinkers."

Hello you two,

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

The smell and the complaints only got better after I took all the pieces of furniture out of the room. So it was actually somehow caused by all of them.
Today I spoke with IKEA’s service and can now return the furniture on goodwill (they will also be picked up) and get my money back.
The alternative, that I could exchange the furniture (also in a different color), was also offered to me.

At least there I have to say that they were really very accommodating to me. Now it just has to work out as agreed.

Regards,
solring

Hello Solring,

thank you for also posting the end of the song and not just venting.

That shows how accommodating IKEA is, right???
Otherwise, Merry Christmas...