apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Using "IKEA" and "Dream Home" in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

My husband built me a replica of that malm over the bed console using skinny hollow core doors (like for a closet). I love it to sit in bed and use the laptop to pay bills. or surf, etc.

The ONLY DREAM HOME IKEA MAKES IS A NIGHTMARE!!!!!
Between quality and service this company is a ZERO!
If you want pleasant dreams spend a few extra dollars and buy from quality merchants like Pottery Barn West Elm , I love Crate and Barrell for svc etc, CB2...

I'm not overly impressed. I wouldn't exactly call this a "dream home". More like dream home on poor man's budget. Everything is brown...it's like dookie. Where's the color?

The green bedroom screamed "cheap Ikea". The rest of the house looked better.

I think that it is impressive and lovely....I would not want to live in an entirely ikea home, but this shows that it can be done well.

I'd love to know the color of the PALE green in the kitchen and bedroom - the white/green? Any thoughts anyone?

I am moving this week to a condo with that same exact green color in the bedroom. I have a white coverlet and am debating on what colors to use with that green. Any suggestions? Reds, Pinks, Orange, Browns? HELP ME...

Apparently Ikea dreams in "brown and white". C'mon guys, where's the flavour?

@ LittleRock: any of your colour choices would be fab. Depends on what look you're going for. I default to red, but whatever you choose, make sure to incorporate same-coloured accessories around the room. That sounds like a FUN project!

It was actually a little boring. Mostly brown-black & white (I really wish they would offer more in medium brown instead of brown-black which tends to just look black). I'm more impressed by their displays at the store, so much more interesting and inspiring. I was expecting some really innovative ideas, but it's pretty typical.

parrisshnut, while Ikea furniture may not be made to last forever, it's all that a lot of us can afford. For someone trying to furnish an apartment or home, you can geta couch, a table and a dining chair from PB/WE/CB2 or I can furnish my entire apartment with Ikea for the same price. I probably wouldn't want to keep the same furniture forever anyway because it gets boring, so why not get something of decent quality for cheap that you don't feel like you have to keep for 10 years to justify the cost?

Thanks Darcidoodle for the suggestions. Yep...first time buyer and I'm so excited to be able to do whatever I want for the first time to my place. I have a white coverlet for my bedspread but thinking of getting some brown and white shams from pottery barn and then mixing in red throw pillows. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am assuming this is a joint marketing venture with a tract home company. Since the homes in these developments tend to have little imagination and are cookie cutter, the unimaginative Ikea design here seems to fit. It is the kind of Ikea stuff that would appeal to folks who like cookie cutter tract homes - which is great if you are into that stuff, no judgment here.

My first thought was - way, way too much brown.

Well, on a tight budget I suppose it could be a dream for some. It's stylish and cheap. But I think there are a lot of things you could draw from it in other ways.

Use it for ideas in color, furniture arrangement, lighting design. They do a great job on those more subliminal elements that aren't actually for sale.

Take what you like, leave the rest behind.

The most creative part of that whole house was the guy's moustache. Impressive!

I like the house layout, but as far as the decoration goes everyone is on point- boring! Coming from a company that screams bright bold colors in every page of their catalog, it's not a successful surprise.

Yikes! I was expecting a bit more from this "dream home" that I've heard so much about. It looks like they either didn't try at all... or tried TOO hard. I'm an Ikea lover, and have seen so much better at the actual store showrooms.

Oh well, this definitely won't keep me from going there. I actually look forward to it more than any person should lol

I just don't know why either a tilt-shift lens or the effect was used. Why would you want a house tour to look miniature? oh and this home looks like a glorified double wide...

While it's not my style, I really like what they did with the teenager's room and their choices for colors (I never would have thought to put them together like that).

I would have loved most of that room when I was that age.

did anyone catch the completely pedophile looking IKEA guy in one of the thumbnails...stache and all. creepy.

my local ikea has better floorplans than that. the most puzzling photo for me was the lonely bookcase with the ladder. a chair next to it would have been much better.

The guy w/the mustache was the best part of the tour.

I really like the layout and the outside of the house...

are these new galleries terribly slow for everyone, or just me? I think maybe it is the busy background w/ ads.

Wow, lighted drawers in the kitchen! For, you know, cooking in the dark...?
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who noticed the mustache. that was awesome.

Can someone tell me the name of the Sideboard in picture No.9 of the slideshow. I have looked for it in the Ikea Catalog and I don't seem to find it.

Thx..

Looks okay but not impressive. It's too...brown...

I don't love it. Where's the "dream" part?

@parrishnut, many of us are on an ikea budget, not a pottery barn one. There is a big difference, like an entire apartment, furnished (new!) from top to bottom, for the cost of one sofa.

And not everything from ikea is junk, I have some Billy bookshelves that I've had for the past 15 years in my apartment.

That being said, I'm not crazy about this. It's a lot of green and brown, where I like white & bright colors.

"Take what you like, leave the rest behind."

healthy attitude, thank you, reb. :-D

i always find it a little puzzling how some people get all worked up with hating all things Ikea. what's the problem? just avoid it.

i am not too keen on the colours, either, but there are some really good ideas in there. which i find Ikea does provide regularly.

(oh, and i didn't realise you recognise pedophiles by their style infacial hair ...)

I love the silver lamps in the main bedroom picture but can't find them on the ikea website. Are they ikea?

I love Ikea, but this does look very head-to-toe Ikea to me. I've seen nicer-looking rooms in their store displays.

I take offense to "spend a few extra dollars". An extra $1000 for a sofa is not "a few extra dollars". If it's a choice between $300 and $325 and the $325 piece is better quality, then yeah, of course, spend the extra dollars...but to call $1000 a few extra dollars is insulting to a lot of people. IKEA is so popular because they are more affordable to a bigger percentage of the population while still offering some stylish options.

With that said....I have seen some much more inspiring rooms at the stores. This designer played it awfully safe and I have a feeling she is not one that IKEA regularly uses. I love going to IKEA just to walk through their room displays! The "Living in 500 sq ft" mini apartments are always fascinating and fun...they sorta dropped the ball on this one.

Look all over the world's creativity, architecture and see the trend (as opposed to exceptions) of how political style, religion (or lack thereof) and a person's deep rooted sense of self worth (or lack) is reflected in their taste and approach in for eg interior design. There is a very obvious trend in Swedish design. They usually go for the sterile bare look and only in later years are being a little more daring with adding colour albeit many in the Ikea-look-way. I am in Sweden and really tire of it tho I appreciate people having their own tastes - it is just that many go safe and want to look like the other person's interiors. Be the same. Not different (hint: socialism and 'Jantelagen'). I am a little negative with this look cos seeing too much of it becomes boring.

There was nothing very interesting going on here. I actually really like Ikea, but this was just kind of sterile and boring. There are much, much better rooms in the new catalog.

I think this is a very clear showcase of the fact that ALL ikea never works...

Ikea has a price point that makes it afforable for first time home buyers (as an example)... but the problem I have with Ikea (or Ikea buyers) is that they furnish their WHOLE home with Ikea.

We've seen amazing design where readers of this blog have incorporated Ikea elements into a house, but the key to what they have done is chosen select pieces, not the whole 2008/2009 catalog.

The guy with the moustache is the best. He should be in every photo.

Ps., what I'm surprised that they didn't do was show more creative ways to incorporate design - Ikea Hacker is a great spot to look. A friend did a RAST overhaul which could have been a great creative line for Ikea to have taken...

http://pennypeople.blogspot.com/2008/09/weekend-project-ikea-rast-overhaul.html

First and foremost: Yes the guy with the mustache was a fantastic diversion!

All I kept thinking about is how shitty that house would be in 20-30 years. Ikea is great LOOKING. It's quality is shit. Don't get me wrong, I have a few Ikea numbers in my apartment that I love. But it has it's place and it's not in a permanent home. Ikea is for apartments, dorm rooms, the cabin that is used only half the year, and for people who's design tastes change frequently. If you are a home owner planning to grow old in your "Dream Home" please don't use Ikea for anything but decor. Otherwise you're going to spend your retirement ripping up that cheap laminate floor.

And yes, way too much brown and white.

I no longer live near an Ikea. The closest location is about 85 miles away, so I browse their web site these days. I do like their affordability and styles, though I'm not a big fan of putting together my own furniture. After a recent experience with another site's import cabinet that off-gassed for weeks, making it impossible for me to sit in my family room without getting a migraine, I'd be asking Ikea the following questions before I purchased a single stick of their furniture or cabinetry:

1) Where is this made? (If the answer is a country with no environmental standards, I'd happily forgo the purchase.)
2) Does it use low- or no-VOC finishes?
3) If it's made of particle/furniture board, does it meet EPA formaldehyde standards?

Don't get me wrong... I'm not an all-green kind of gal. I just don't like when my stuff makes me sick -- as in the case of The Company Store noxious (and poorly-made) Bristol Bookcase noted above -- and I don't want to sicken my kitchen and bath design clients either.

I think the sideboard in slide 9 is a combination of Besta products from IKEA's media center collection.

We are about to close on a new house, customized (at significant expense) from the base floor plan of a small new development (6 houses). It's a bigger place than the one we sold and much of our old furniture went away one way or another. We are using IKEA for the library (Billy shelving), the dining room "hutch" (Billy shelving with wood and glass doors), and the home office (Galant desk system.) We also got a few other things there. (They aren't assembled yet, since we close next week, but I am very happy with their styling. And this we can afford.)

Some of you city dwellers have NO IDEA what it's like to try to find contemporary furnishings in smaller cities and towns... Everything in my New Hampshire area is colonial/traditional. And/or seriously expensive. I can't afford to shop in Boston much -- not to mention being paranoid about driving there. But I can catalog shop IKEA, visit their store (granted, a long drive), have cheap delivery and be happy with the look I can achieve. I do combine with recycled finds and other basics, of course... I see no reason to be snobbish about the company!