The key IKEA pieces I have had for a decade that haven’t dated
When I first started writing about design 20 years ago, I had no idea of what my own taste was, and very little money to buy anything anyway. And so, trips to IKEA were essential to furnish my first apartment with the pieces I needed in order to make it feel like home.
Many of them have been sold on, given away or – shamefully – consigned to landfill since then. There was a solid wood-effect coffee table that I thought would give my 1960s apartment a bit or rustic, family-style homespun charm, but in fact just sucked out all the light and sense of air flow. But a few pieces have stayed with me, looking as fresh and relevant as they did back then. Plus, they are all IKEA pieces that look more expensive than the very small amount I paid for them years ago.
They’ve come with me to new homes, seen the pieces around them upgrade to include some designer names and artisan-made work, but they’ve held their own and endured.
I moved house last fall and have most of my bigger pieces in storage, waiting for my next place to be ready while I rent in an interim home. And these are the IKEA pieces that are coming with me once again, that got packed up for the umpteenth time and will be unveiled in the new place in due course and somehow never seem to date.
1. BILLY Bookcase
(Image credit: IKEA)
I’ve actually had my BILLY bookcase for two decades. I bought it for my first apartment back in 2005. I got the dark wood veneer version. It suited the look I was into at the time, and then a year later painted it a brilliant white when I was refreshing my living room.
It was that easy IKEA hack that saved the piece, its heavy walnut coloring was too dark for my tastes, which were developing quickly around that time. But the wood finish BILLYs have more of a grain to them than the ones that come in white, and the texture is easier to see in a lighter color. The BILLY now stands on rounded wood feet from Amazon, also painted white, with books in some squares and objets in others. It’s come with me to five homes, and will be coming onto the next.
Buy the BILLY here
2 POÄNG armchair
(Image credit: IKEA)
This was meant to be a stopgap purchase, something to put in the corner of my home office until, well, until it could be upgraded. But it was so comfortable, and the way it has just the right amount of give and flexibility to it that it seems to hold you, that it stayed.
Colleagues are very used to seeing me take video calls from it, its sunny yellow headrest a backdrop to conversations about everything from design trends to spreadsheets.
Had I gone for the pale color I think it wouldn’t have aged so well, but the yellow is a perennially cheerful hue that has more than lasted it the past decade, it has become a favorite piece. Oh, and my cat loves to curl up in it too. How’s that for an endorsement?
Buy the POÄNG here
3. BESTÅ sideboard
(Image credit: IKEA)
My BESTÅ has had so many lives. It began its use next to my dining table in my first flat, holding plates, linens, glassware, and bit of junk I wanted to hide from view.
Then it went into my bedroom, so the TV could sit on top of it at the end of my bed. For a while it lived in a niche outside a bathroom at my next house, holding towels. And now my pet snake sits on top of it, useful files and design books stored underneath.
It’s a classic bit of furniture that epitomizes what IKEA has always done so well: non-showy pieces that almost hide in plain sight, blending into the background unobtrusively and doing just what you need them to do. Next to more colorful or more textured designs it has always been a bit of a visual pause, an aesthetic breath of fresh air.
Shop the BESTÅ here
4. RÖDALM frames
(Image credit: IKEA)
I’ve written before about how I wouldn’t buy a picture frame from anywhere other than IKEA, and my trusty collection of RÖDALMs, that ages back much longer than a decade, is proof of why. They cost me almost nothing, they came with mounts that made what’s in them look more expensive, and they still endure to this day.
What’s in them has changed of course. I’ve updated some Art Deco prints of old magazine covers to now be graphic drawings by the artist Yaoyao Ma Van As – but the frames themselves continue to not be the main focus, allowing whatever is inside them to shine.
Shop the RÖDALM here
5. ORRESLÄTT/BUSTER chair
(Image credit: IKEA)
There’s a corner of the internet that practically fetishizes classic IKEA design. Decommissioned pieces have pages and pages written about them, their simplicity and enduring style analyzed.
I once wrote a piece for a newspaper about why people loved these rare IKEA classics so much, and fell down the rabbit hole myself, tracking down a vintage BUSTER chair and paying… let’s just say, more than $150 for it.
Which is all rather galling, because this 1959 design has been recently re-introduced for $149, renamed as the ORRESLÄTT. But the reasons I fell for it remain. It still tilts at just the right angle that it forces you to relax. It still encompasses you with exactly the right amount of room to add a pillow and to curl up your feet. It’s still a perfect example of how good design doesn’t need embellishing in order to stand out and be loved. I adore my BUSTER, and the ORRESLÄTT revival does it proud.
Buy the ORRESLÄTT here
I still look to IKEA as much as I do high-end brands for trend and design inspiration. It may be cheap and cheerful, but the designers behind the pieces know what they are doing, and now I shop more mindfully than I perhaps did in decades past, I fully expect the IKEA pieces I choose to invest in now will last for years to come too.
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