[bayindirh]

I have a study furnished solely with IKEA furniture. Billy bookshelves, Galant tables, a wall shelf, etc.

Tables are really well made. So are the bookshelves. They are sturdy, high quality and withstand to abuse.

There are high quality items, and there are fine and high quality items. What he uses the latter.

Take an example. He uses fountain pens (so do I). Montblanc inks, a Lamy 2000. They are not expensive for what they are, yet they are fine instruments. They are made with care. I have tons of inks, yet Montblanc and a couple of brands really stand out in reliability, writing comfort and color quality. Same for L2000. It’s a very understated but a completely handmade thing, with great attention to detail. It’s even too much pen for that money.

The furniture he uses are the same. Understated, yet fine. It’s not there to make a statement, but to be enjoyed by their owner. I share the same sentiment. I do not buy anything to impress anyone, but to enjoy.

Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.

[daishi424]

I couldn't resist reading this in Patrick Bateman's voice!

[elliottkember]

Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's book-case.

[KennyBlanken]

I'm pretty sure a $700 desk lamp is a statement.

[bayindirh]

Statement for you, self indulgence for the guy over there, normal for somebody else.

All valid, and that's the point.

[rpcope1]

I mean if it has no moving parts, that's 100% true. Having spent too much time around the wealthy with "taste" I can't believe how much money people drop on dumb subpar shit when i.e. with the desk you could have spent a hundred or two for a high quality wood slab (or God forbid glued and planed your own), and afternoon with some good varnish and/or stain, and ordered or scavenged some nice commercial or educational table legs and both had something that looks better than basically anything else and can be actually customized to what you need.

[al_borland]

Not everyone is interested in carpentry as a hobby. Sometimes people just want a desk, not a project.

I may romanticize the idea of making my own stuff from time to time, but realistically, I’m never going to spend my time sourcing wood slabs, finding ways to transport said slab to my workshop, building a workshop, letting the wood dry (if not already done), learning all the details about how to best adapt the slab to a desk, building the actual desk, trying to fix the imperfections, then after installing the desk in my office… knowing those imperfections exist and the things I learn along the way, I’d be unsatisfied and thinking about how I could build another desk without those issues/compromises. Rinse and repeat forever. This sounds like a nightmare, and much more expensive than just buying a desk.

I sometimes go through phases watching woodworkers on YouTube and it’s never just—-varnish a slab and bolt on some legs. In some cases, even moving the slab around requires specialized skills and equipment.

[rpcope1]

Sure the people doing YouTube videos on fine carpentry (the ones that look like they just stole half of Woodcraft in some giant heist) are going to do everything themselves and do it what they consider right. It doesn't have to be like that. Ikea used to sell a pretty nice hardwood slab that I used for my brother's desk with a sturdy manual standing frame. I don't think we did much more than spray clear coat (and who knows he might have done something crazy like gel sealed it later). It was maybe an afternoon and a date with a hex driver and some high grit sandpaper, and it still looks better than what you can buy from Ergotron or whatever eurochic people are buying. Even common boards with a little bit of elbow grease and a few handtools can be made to look better than basically anything you can buy, and speaking from lots of experience you notice the problems for about a day before you move on (unless they're huge problems, which they rarely are) and think about something else.

All that to say, you might surprise yourself what you can do without a monster boomer wood workshop full of Festool and other unobtanium, and feel pretty good about it.

[compiler-guy]

Spray clear coat, hex driver, high grit sandpaper, elbow grease and a few hand tools. And how to use all of them.

The amount of experience behind that analysis is pretty high. You have a lot of knowledge that you got somehow. Maybe by growing up around it, maybe by taking a class or something else.

Lots of people don’t have that knowledge or the experience to do it well. And don’t really want it. None of it is all that hard, and about anyone could learn the basics pretty fast.

But lots of people prefer doing other things instead of working up that knowledge. Or, even more, figuring out that this knowledge is available and not that hard to learn.

Some projects are hard for beginners and just figuring out if their idea of a desk qualifies is even more work.

[Liftyee]

I suspect those people lack the practical skills needed to construct such a table, and the time/motivation to create with their own hands instead of purchasing.

[throwaway2037]

I cannot tell if this is sarcasm or real. It reads like an article from "McSweeney’s Internet Tendency". It gets even better if you read it with a syrupy deep (American) southern accent, similar to Fred Brooks (author of "The Mythical Man-Month"). The only thing missing from this reply is telling us about your "understated, yet fine" wrist watch (no doubt: Swiss), obscure Porsche car model, and high-fidelity surround sound system (with obligatory record player).

For anyone else curious, I Googled about the LAMY 2000 Fountain Pen. It has a retail price over 250 USD. You can buy excellent Japanese single-use pens for less than 1 USD.

    > Nobody, sans my wife sees my most prized possessions. I got them to use and enjoy, that’s all.

And yet, you needed to come to the Internet and tell us all about them.

[akho]

LAMY 2000 and Platinum Preppy/Pilot V-pen are not the same kind of product. To be honest, the disposables are not excellent at all.

However, the difference in writing feel, line quality, &c between a lamy 2k and the new Chinese producers like Majohn or PenBBS is not so big. They do require a bit more maintenance, and the looks and feels are subpar. Whether that's worth the $230 price difference is questionable.

I own the lamy, and love it dearly. I bought it 10 years ago, when I felt easier with spending money. I wouldn't have bought one now.

[iammjm]

Have you ever done some extended handwriting? What you do it with actually matters, that's literally what you hold in your hands and press onto the paper every single time; it's what determines your writing experience, especially with fountain pens. Lamy is not really a fancy brand; they just make good and sturdy fountain pens. Go for Lamy Safari, it's less than 10% of 2000's price

[arcanemachiner]

You probably have multiple hobbies or beliefs that could be readily mocked by someone who doesn't share them. There's no need to dunk on strangers who have different tastes than you.

[bayindirh]

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or real. If former, thanks for the laugh, but if latter, let me tell you something straight.

Yes, I all the things you have listed up there, sans the Porsche, and while I enjoy them immensely, let me tell you that they are not "needs" for me, and I don't become someone better "just because I have them".

See, I have the audacity to listen to the music intently, make mine and even record it with an audio interface. Oh the horrors, oh the horrors!

I got some of these items with luck, bought some of them with my money, but more importantly, these are not excuses to look down on people just because I have, use and enjoy them.

Maybe it's kinda rude to look down on people just because they have different choices than you. Or maybe it's a prejudice that you think someone is a snob just because they happen to have a record player or a fancy watch and you assume that they don't enjoy a Casio F-91W or a simple YouTube bootleg record over a Bluetooth speaker the same.

...and yes, iammjm's reply is correct. Fountain pens are comfortable for long writing sessions, and you can get a Lamy Safari and be done with it. It's such an excellent pen.

[arcanemachiner]

Don't let cynical strangers get you down. There's nothing wrong with having particular tastes.