(This is from Insta-Reporter Christine Capulong! We apologize to her for getting it up late.)
Alright, I confess I have a tempestuous love affair with Ikea. I positively drool at the clean-lined modernist furniture with the low price points but wince at the thought of spending an afternoon dealing with traffic jams, spotty customer service, absurdly long check-out lines, and figuring out indecipherable instruction manuals.
I appreciate Ikeas zeal to provide good design to people all over the world but wish they would do something with their own unimaginative store architecture. It absolutely offends my design sensibilities. But yet, I cant explain the excitement I feel every time I see the blue and yellow box when approaching from the freeway.
I can go on and on about my love-hate relationship so I was very curios to see which emotion would surface after attending the Sneak Peek Reception of Ikeas Everyday Fabulous Exhibit" on Thursday night. I dragged my designer friend Mia Kang for some much needed moral support. . .
The gentleman at the right is Ikea CEO Anders Dahlvig.
The exhibit was not about introducing the latest designs Ikea had to offer, but rather to show how good design could transform the most ordinary day into something spectacular. It was all about unleashing your creativity and making every day fabulous.
This was Ikeas first exhibit during New Yorks Design Week producing an event that was completely inclusive and totally unconventional. According to Anders Dahlvig, CEO of Ikea, the purpose of the exhibit was to showcases eye-opening ideas of products that customers from all over the world love and buy.
They wanted to challenge people to break the rules, create their own space and not try to live up to the glossy, high-end designs that you see in magazines. This really tugged at my design rebel heart especially since I knew the next couple of days Id be bombarded by such trade-only high end designs at ICFF. I appreciated the message and so folks, I have to say, Im in LOVE once again with Ikea.
So please check out the Ikea Everyday Fabulous Exhibit and be prepared to be inspired. Its open to the public May 19-23 from 9AM to 6PM and located at 237 W. 35th Street (@ 11th Street) directly across from the Javits Center. www.everydayfabulous.com.
Here are just some of the things we saw at the exhibit:
An impressive 20-foot high by 30-foot long wall completely covered by Billy bookcases.
The cleansing room pillow-padded walls and
Ikeas version of a food colander water fountain.
The Sultan Bed as a sexy lounge seating
Fashion designers creating bags from the Ikea fabrics
These reminded me of the Marimekko Fabric Line but without the high prices!
By: Christine Capulong 3Little Monsters Design Group
Could you please tell me whether any of the stuff that is on exhibit could be purchased there?
Thanks for the review, any additional photos? I was away for the weekend and wasn't able to make it during the weekdays since I get out after it closes. I wish I had high enough ceilings to house those bookcases stacked together.
Ah if only this had been posted BEFORE it closed. And Maxwell, honey, you know that 35th St. and 11th St. don't cross each other.
Sorry - that should have been directed at Christine (the reporter).
IKEA SUX BALLS!
kathy--
SO clever, and we're so much the wiser for your insightful post.
And, um, that's REALLY not such a bad thing, either.
Christine--
I share your enthusiasm for the Ikea thing wholeheartedly, so trhanks for sharing yours. I really love them as a company too.
And if that's you in the pillow and bookcase pics, YOWZA, you are a babe.
And I usually only say that to people with names like Lockhart... :)
As I'm sure you're aware the unimaginative store architecture is a good part of the reason Ikea's prices are so low. They have maximized the warehouse as retail design of the big box retailer to minimize overhead. And by plopping down the exact same boring store in every metro area, they keep their expansion costs low allowing them to rapidly open more stores, thus spreading great low cost design to more people.
As with everything else, we just have to take the good with the bad.
I so wanted to see this, but only found out about it on the last day, and had no time.
And while I can't share P2's love for Lockhart (he's way too snarky in a smug, bad way), Christine is lovely!
Ah, Ikea.
I've had their good. I've had their bad. I've never seen anything there I would call ugly. Maybe not my taste, but not ugly.
I'd like to add this comment to the mix: The REALLY great thing about Ikea is that you learn from shopping there. For example, I have owned three Ikea sofas: one $400 (my starter), one $1000 and one $200 (needed for a nine-month sublet in the Bay Area). There could be no better lesson in you get what you pay for. The cheapies were uncomfortable and quickly showed their cost. But when you are poor and need a sofa, you need a sofa. The $1000 one was great. Upgraded fabric, frame and cushions you actually had to order and wait for (do they still offer this semi-custom stuff?) It looked as good in year 3 as year 1. I'd probably still have that sofa if I hadn't gotten married to someone who already had a sofa they were wedded to.
And if you say you hate Ikea, can you honestly say you could walk through and not find something you need that you didn't know you needed?
Interested-- The Ikea Everyday Fabulous was pretty much just an exhibit to inspire people and get their creative juices going. If you want to buy their products, you'll still have to trek over to the nearest Ikea store or go online.
DC-- I have a couple more pics featuring the Pax closet system, the Akurum kitchen, and some decorative pillows. If you want, email me at christine@3littlemonster.com and I can send you whatever Ikea pics I have. And yes, all those Billy bookcases stacked 20 feet high were quite impressive...
Anne-- My Bad! I should have double-checked the address... I meant 35th Street and 11th Ave. I guess it's not a good idea to write articles at 3AM...
Patrick (the other one) and Fiona--- Thanks for the compliments, but that lovely lady in the pics is Mia Kang, one of the "Monsters" in our design group. She and I are remodeling a 6-unit residential building and we plan to install Ikea kitchen cabinets-which we love, love, love!I figured she was the perfect candidate to drag along to this event. Also, a hot babe in the pics doesn't hurt bringing in the traffic. :P
Kind regards,
Christine
hey, I too would love to see those "pics featuring the Pax closet system, the Akurum kitchen, and some decorative pillows" that Christine mentioned. And I'm sure there are many others besides DC & me--would it be possible to just post the additional pics on the site?
(Figuring out ways to modify or "customize" IKEA components is a topic that is very near & dear to my IKEA-loving (in moderation) heart, so this is right up my alley.)
I've always found Ikea's visual merchandising, point of purchase displays, room vignettes and graphic design to more than make up for "unimaginative store architecture."
But if they *are* so cookie cutter, how come the ones I've been to in Paramus, Atlanta, and Chicago don't share the same floorplans?
I adore the sultan bed and I wish I could figure out a way to incorporate it into my household. It comes in four pieces though and I don't think it would be comfortable to sleep on.
It's great to know that Ikea's 'spotty customer service' and 'long queues' are part of their international style. I always thought it was some sort of Aussie ambience. Terence Conran told Ikea's owner that 'enraging the customer isn't the best way to do business', but still no change ....
You are immensely lucky to be able to buy online. Here you have to go to the store. I need 3 billy bookcases but don;t have the strength to get them onto a trolley to the checkout - and then to the delivery bay. Naturally the staff hide - if they didn't, they'd be hand lifting furniture all day.
I would also love to see additional photos (especially of the kitchen) Please post. Thanks!
Gee, Deb, I got great service today at the IKEA in Emeryville, California. Maybe I lucked out.
IKEA was the only place I could find affordable, contemporary metal drawer pulls with 96 mm hole spacing to replace the crummy plastic pulls that came with the cheap metal desk I ordered from another retailer. And where else can you get a shiny green plastic desk chair with casters and adjustable seating height for $20? Sometimes a little bit of candy can really hit the spot.
Hi Everyone,
I went ahead and posted the rest of the Ikea pics on Flicker...
http://www.flickr.com/people/3littlemonsterschristine/
Christine
thanks for posting the pics, christine! love those glossy red Akurum kitchen cabinets.
i've always admired IKEA's kitchen cabinets for their clean & simple good looks and, even more importantly, their BASIC FUNCTIONALITY. i can't tell you how incredibly annoying it is to struggle w/ my American-style cabinets--all that wasted drawer & cabinet space, the blocked access due to the stupid vertical framing pieces between cabinet doors, the drawers that don't extend fully, making the entire back third an inaccessible black hole of corkscrews & bamboo skewers & god knows what. unfortunately, even an IKEA-priced kitchen remodel is out of my reach, but i can't help poring over their kitchen catalog anyway...sad i know.
Confucious say, "He who shops at Ikea has a house filled with cheap crap."
Better cheap crap than expensive crap. Been to Pottery Barn lately?
just for the record, boys and girls, christine is one hot mama too!!!
signed,
Quinn, the third little monster