Fashion Gets Decorative - Zara Home vs. IKEA Part I

When I started researching for this blog article, I never thought I'd be typing the following sentence: Zara Home isn't all that bad. For starters it's miles ahead of IKEA in aesthetics, without adding to much heft to the price tag. In fact, where IKEA usually fails - linens, silverware, and decorative items - Zara Home succeeds. But who does it better at the best price?

Picture Frames

IKEA has cheap frames. So cheap in fact it's almost impossible to find the same quality frames anywhere else at a similiar price. My problem with IKEA's picture frame selection is there isn't much of a selection and what's available is downright boring.

The downside is most of the frames sold at Zara Home are for smaller format sizes whereas IKEA has a wide array of sizes for most framing needs.

Winner: IKEA

Lighting and Lamps

When it comes to lighting solutions, there is generally something for everyone at IKEA provided you want your house to be lit like an art gallery. I had high hopes that Zara Home would have better options for those who love good table lamps. I had a friend who lit Broadway shows and gave me the advice that ceiling lighting should be aimed on one specific object, while the rest of any space is best served by lamps scattered at different heights with the uppermost and lowest eye level positions for the best effect.

Sadly neither IKEA or Zara Home had any lamp I'd ever decided to purchase.

Winner: Draw

Bed Linens, Curtains, Rugs, Blankets, & Pillows

Again I had high hopes for Zara Home's offerings, but was left disappointed. Zara Home's selection is pithy compared to the vast amount of choices offered at IKEA, where I've always managed to find something. In fact I would say IKEA's color range has vastly improved in the past few years as their designers apparently discovered there are more colors in the spectrum than simply apple green and fuschia.

I could really see the second bed cover as a perfect way to make up the guest bed.

Winner: IKEA

Kitchen & Dining Room

Anyone who has been to IKEA knows its chock full of things for the kitchen and for setting one's table. I have found some really great cheap objects for the kitchen from IKEA, but the aesthetics always was sort of blah. I like good forks with long twines and good weight. I have never found a set of cutlery at IKEA that I thought was great besides being very cheap (and cheap is good because apparently teaspoons and soup spoons grow magical legs and run off to places).

I was however, pleasantly surprised by some of the cutlery at Zara Home such as the Classica.

This particular collection offers every piece of cultery imaginable beyond the standard soup spoon, fork, knife, tea spoon sets found at IKEA, but you pay for each piece in this particular collection. I usually buy cultery for at least 8 place settings as for dinners I generally keep the guest list between 4-6 people.

Based on what I would select for my needs I selected 8 each of the following: serving spoons, dessert spoons, tea or coffee spoons, table knives, table forks, fish forks, and fish knives for a grand total of 250,00 euros. My favorite maker of cutlery is a French brand called Guy Degrenne and a 44 piece set of cutlery will cost about 400,00 euros, but really is worth every penny. I was lucky to buy my 44 piece set at an outlet for 285,00 euros, so at 35,00 euros more than the Zara set I'm not impressed.

I'm a fan of white dishes and have bought a lot of plates and dinnerware from IKEA and am pretty satisfied with the results. I do wish however that the round dinner plates were a little bigger because they are slightly recessed and make it hard to plate things properly. Also, when dinnerware is patterened at IKEA it's always a disaster. Plates should be either simple with the artistic flair of the cook being the focal point or if the dinnerware is patterned it should enhance the visual presentation of what you're serving. The designers at IKEA apparently do not understand this.

I found three patterns of Zara Home dinnerware that I think would make a wonderful addition to any table setting depending on what is being served.

These white plates are perfect for every day and can handle any type of cuisine if the meal is plated properly.

This bone china set is rimmed in gold and perfect for serving almost anything from boeuf bourriguignon to fried chicken and potato salad. It's also very reasonably priced.

This is the most difficult of the sets that I liked. I would buy plates to serve salads and bowls to serve sliced fruit or yogurt. As much as I like the pattern, it's the least practical.

As far as placements, tablecloths, napkins, and other table accessories go IKEA continues to disappoint while Zara Home surprised me. Here are a few of the goodies I spied on their website.

To see who wins in the end, click here.