The new Ikea catalogue came the other day.
Time was when I would spend hours poring over its pages, marveling at all the great ideas. And then I would figure out how I could achieve the same end with stuff I already had around the house.
I know I’ve changed in the intervening years, but it seems to me that Ikea has, as well. Didn’t they used to be about living well in small spaces? I seem to remember that they used to have some really great ideas for doing that.
Now they seem to be more about storing ever more stuff in ever more stylish containers, which, from the reading that I’ve done, is pretty much where the market is these days, certainly in North America. While we minimalists would like to think we’re part of a Big Trend, we probably need to drop our delusions along with our crap.
In terms of the versatile, multi-purpose furniture that I’m so interested in these days, they have a few sofa-beds. We even own the one in the picture. It rolls out into a bed quite easily and is really comfortable to sleep on.
But there’s not much else, which is kind of disappointing. I really wish they’d get into designing things like affordable Murphy beds. There’s one out there that serves as a dining room table when not in use for sleeping. How brilliant is that? Two activities that hardly ever take place at the same time in a single piece of furniture. It’s also really pricey. I’d like to see Ikea’s take on it.
They did come out with an all in one kitchen a few years back. It was really clever. And it didn’t sell.
We need to move to smaller digs. All of us. As part of our environmental reform, we need to reverse the trend to ever-bigger houses with ever-more stuff to store. But as long as there’s no affordable design out there to make a smaller space convenient and comfortable, not many people are going to be willing to make the move.
So I’m challenging Ikea and any designers out there to come up with one room living in a box. If you know of anyone who’s doing it, please let me know in the comments.
