The pandemic is over. Well, almost! It is time to get the drawing board out and get started on the pending home makeover. Covid forced us to stay indoors more, it made us work from home and adopt to restricted travel. If you pause to think, you will realize that we all spent much more time at home during the last three years than we normally did in the pre-covid era. People have become more aware of mental health and the deep connection our homes have to our well-being.
What makes the home our sanctuary, the feel-good place? It is not just four walls and a roof; a home reflects our personality and shapes our mood. If your home is uncomfortable and cluttered, it will have an adverse impact on your mood, your performance at work and most importantly, your relationships.
So naturally, the next thought that comes to mind is- how do we convert our house into a home that is comfortable, relaxing and provides an environment where we can feel supported for our practical and emotional needs?
Thankfully, we now have the world’s leading company IKEA for our help, both via their brick-and-mortar stores and via their website. They have over 12,000 products, designed with a common principle- to bring innovative ideas into reality in an affordable manner. We shall have a look at a few of their popular creations that contribute to making our homes better.
LIVING ROOM
Let us start with the living room– this is obviously the place where we spend most of our time when home. It is also generally the first room a guest enters. Quite naturally, we would like our living room to be well organized yet comfortable, pleasant, and welcoming. In my opinion, the sofa is one of the most important items in the living room. If you are a couch potato like me, the sofa is your go-to place for relaxing, reading, watching TV and listening to music.
Ikea offers a wide range of sofas, ranging from modular sofas, sofa-beds, chaise lounges and footstools. Having used some of these over the past years myself, my current favourite is the Ektorp. Available in six colours, this sofa comes with very comfortable cushions and easy-to-change washable covers. The raised underside of the sofa allows for easy cleaning. The overall look and feel of this product are bound to make you say “Oh, Sofa So Good!”
We can pair the Ektorp sofa with a sturdy and utilitarian Nodeland coffee table (available in two colours). With its equally big shelf, one can easily store magazines, remotes and other stuff you would need close while relaxing on your sofa.
If you are an avid reader like me, it is natural to look for a beautiful bookcase. Even in the age of tablets and e-readers, paperbacks retain their appeal, don’t you agree? Ikea has an excellent collection of bookcases and shelves that suit every budget and taste. My choice is the Brimnes bookcase, which comes with adjustable shelves in the upper half and a very useful cabinet in the bottom half. This beautiful bookcase is available in two colours- black or white- to suit your overall décor.
For housing your electronic gear – your TV, home theatre and gaming console – please have a look at the TV cabinets available with Ikea. You will be spoilt for choice in this category as well. I went for the Hauga TV-Storage combination in white, as it offers both open and closed storage along with a tv shelf that can easily accommodate a 55-inch TV. The doors on the closed-storage shelves come with adjustable hinges and the entire unit can be secured to the wall with the safety unit. The unit comes with a cable outlet at the back of the tv bench, allowing one to organize all the cables neatly. The entire unit has flat top shelves which is a characteristic of the Hauga range.
KITCHEN
Next on my wish list is stuff that will keep my kitchen well organized. Ikea has on offer end-to-end solutions including kitchen worktops, islands and trolleys, shelves, cabinets and even appliances. If you feel confused with the wide variety of products, they also offer a kitchen planner service, where a specialist helps you plan the setup in the best possible way.
I recommend the Enhet kitchen range for its combination of aesthetics and functionality. With various accessories and products, the combinations have endless possibilities, so you can tailor the final solution to fit your budget and space constraints. What’s more, you can implement the kitchen in phases, putting the basic platform and shelves in place, to begin with, and adding accessories over a period, allowing you to better manage your cash flow.
The entire Enhet kitchen can be assembled without any specialized tools, as it uses a dowel that allows the assembly of cabinets, metal frames and drawers with just a click- innovation at its best!
Once the kitchen is assembled, you may consider the Ikea range of serveware. I am in awe of their bowls, plates, cutlery, trays and a wide variety of knives! There are hundreds of products in this category to cater to your cooking and serving needs. The Aromatisk gold-coloured 3-leaved service stand is just one example, it can be used to serve snacks or dry fruits. The design of all products under the Aromatisk range is driven by Indian influences.
BEDROOM
We sorted the living room and the kitchen, now we shall look at the range Ikea offers for the bedroom! After a long, hard day’s work, we need a relaxing place to catch some sleep and recuperate. No matter if you own a studio or multi-bedroom house, you can find solutions for your bedrooms all under one roof at Ikea.
Beds at Ikea come in various forms and types- we can consider beds with storage, beds that can also be used as sofas during the day, daybeds and upholstered beds and finally children’s beds– all of these are designed to make our bedrooms highly functional yet most comfortable at an affordable price.
The Malm ottoman is my personal choice, for its excellent size (160 x200 cm), colour choices (black-brown, white, white stained oak veneer) and the storage it offers. Just flip the bed base (the hydraulics makes it easy to do so) and store all your stuff inside. The bed also comes with a headboard so you can prop up a pillow for some light reading.
For my second, smaller bedroom I opted for the Hemnes day-bed frame. This product is amazing because it can be used as a single bed, a double bed or a sofa and even has adequate storage! Its simple lines make it easy to fit in with any décor.
The bed can be paired with excellent mattresses from Ikea, either in foam or spring format. I opted for the Malvik foam mattress – mainly due to its firm texture and the way the memory foam moulds itself to the body. The mattress spreads the body weight evenly, providing a better-quality sleep and is said to even improve blood circulation. Another excellent feature is the removable, washable cover the mattress comes with. As with most Ikea mattresses, this product comes with a ten-year warranty! Amazing, isn’t it?
I recommend the Malm Chest of 2 drawers next to your bed, which comes with smooth running drawers, kept in check with pull-out stops. It can be used as a bedside table and to store essentials such as night creams, your pair of reading glasses etc. You can place a beautiful Gradvis vase on it if you so wish. I installed a beautiful Ekne mirror on the wall above my bedside table, so it doubles as a mini dressing table. With its curly steel wire, this mirror is a work of art and transforms the look of the bedroom. Please do have a look at it.
The next item on the agenda is the bedding – bed covers, pillows and quilts. The products in this category are so comfortable and beautiful, they will make you never want to leave your bed!
The Indira bedspread caught my eye at first glance. It offers a simple way to add colour to the look of your bedroom. With its cotton weave, it is perfect for summer yet can also be used as a blanket during winter or during a rainy evening. In short, it is perfect for use all through the year. The material is soft, durable and breathable, a must-have in my opinion.
The Rosenskarm pillow helps me sleep better, with its moldable foam providing me support and comfort throughout the night. This ergonomic pillow is recommended for side or back sleepers. You can protect your pillows with Rosenskarm pillowcases, made with fine yarn and an extra high thread count, giving a soft and cool feel.
For duvets, my go-to product is the Safferot, a lightweight, soft offering that is rated light-warm- a perfect choice if one feels warm at night. With its 100% polyester, this duvet is machine-washable and dries quickly.
I have paired the duvet with the Jattelilja duvet cover, which comes with two matching pillowcases. It has a floral pattern interspersed with butterflies, adding a colourful dimension to the room. The satin material keeps one comfortable and improves sleep quality considerably.
BATHROOM
The living room, the kitchen and the bedroom are now looking beautiful, we are almost there in terms of making the space feel like home. Let us now have a look at how we can transform the bathrooms with various accessories and fittings Ikea has on offer.
The Enhet experience for the kitchen prompted me to look for a similar offering for the bathroom and sure enough, Ikea offers an Enhet bathroom solution that is highly modular, customizable and easy to assemble. It ranges from shelves, frames, storage cabinets, vanity units, accessories and lighting. As with the kitchen range, this bathroom solution can be assembled without any special tools.
The Enhet mirror cabinets come in a wide range of sizes, I personally went for a single-door, 2-shelved option that is very practical to store shampoos, cosmetics and stuff. The glossy door gives a posh look and is easy to clean.
The Enhet cabinets come with storage that is a combo of open- for easy reach and closed- for storing larger and bulkier stuff. We can opt to add hooks attached to the wall frame for hanging some additional stuff, without any need for drilling. The entire range has a glossy outer surface, giving a clean and modern look to your bathroom.
The Tisken range of add-ons like soap dish, corner shelf and toilet roll holders all come with suction grips, so you can avoid drilling holes into your beautiful bathroom tiling.
You can also consider adding some Nordrana hanging storage– unique handmade storage that allows for storing both large and small items within its pockets. It is versatile as you can hang the pockets together vertically, attached to each other or separately in a horizontal chain.
For decluttering drawers and shelves, we can use the Billingen drawer inserts. These are top-selling products, as they are super helpful to bring order to an otherwise chaotic, cluttered shelf/drawer.
I recommend the addition of a Tolkning laundry basket to your place. This hand-woven, unique basket comes with wheels and balancing feet, so the moisture on the bathroom floor does not affect the basket at all. The inner cloth bag inside the basket makes it easy to lift the laundry out of the basket and the wheels make it easy to carry the laundry to/from the washing machine.
Ikea offers various lighting solutions for each room of the house. These products along with several other accessories such as throws, lampshades, rugs, picture frames, scented candles, decoration material, outdoor furniture and clocks cater to every imaginable need towards transforming the house. Ikea also offers home-office solutions for remote workers including multi-functional desks, chairs and electrical accessories. All these products are so varied and full of possibilities that we can not do justice to them in one blog. Hopefully, we can cover these in the future.
Shopping at Ikea for transforming your house into a beautiful, cosy home is an experience in itself. I strongly recommend giving their store a visit. If this is not possible, you can still go through their website and get started on your home improvement journey!
