IKEA's 'open source' sofa invites customization

It has long inspired online community of 'hackers' who share ideas for how to modify its furniture

IKEA wants more people to hack its furniture.

The Swedish retailer plans to roll out soon what it calls its first “open source” sofa-a piece of furniture designed to be easily customized to fit a space, or change functions entirely over time. Customers can clip on a lamp, or side table, or in a few minutes, turn the sofa into a bed.

The Delaktig, Swedish for “being part of something,” is expected to hit stores in early 2018. Other IKEA International A/S offerings already allow for some customization, for example, with replaceable, colored covers. With the new piece, IKEA wants to encourage customers to experiment more fundamentally.

The company hopes third-party designers will spring up to create complementary products that can clip onto the piece, or modify its use. Students at an IKEA-led workshop at London’s Royal College of Art came up with a clip-on privacy screen, a baby’s crib and a wall of shelves, among other designs for the product.

The move is a further embrace of a trend the world’s largest furniture maker has been quietly encouraging for years. It has long inspired an online community of “hackers” who share ideas for how to modify IKEA products. They’ve fashioned wall hangers from IKEA’s wooden bed slats, turned dressers into desks and raised IKEA beds using its kitchen cabinets and drawers.

IKEA didn’t encourage the tinkering, but it has also never actively discouraged it. A niche industry has now grown up making everything from sofa covers to decorative table legs, fitted just for IKEA’s particularly shaped furniture.

Sweden-based Bemz AB makes covers for IKEA sofas, footstools, headboards and armchairs. They can sell for more than the furniture itself. Prettypegs AB, also based in Sweden, makes decorative furniture legs for IKEA beds, tables and stools.

The new product takes customization in a slightly different direction. It will feature an aluminum frame and a base made from wooden slats-like a typical IKEA flat-packed bed. It comes in different sizes, with optional armrests, a headboard and a sofa back, that can be clipped on depending on what it is being used for. IKEA said it plans to price the Delaktig around the middle of its sofa range, typically around $399 to $899.Delaktig’s metal frame also contains a series of grooves that take a standard-sized bolt head, allowing people to make and clip on any number of items themselves.

IKEA will initially sell an optional clip-on lamp and table to be used with the product, and plans to roll out more accessories in time. It hopes third-party designers will create other items. Tom Dixon, a British designer who has been working with IKEA on the product, says he is envisioning possibilities like a bunk bed, or incorporating lighting in a way that turns a bed into a giant lamp.

Unlike IKEA’s other sofas, Delaktig can be flat packed, making it easier to take home, and is built to last for-and be modified over-several years.

The concept is part of a broader push at IKEA to cater to the world’s fast-expanding urban population, living in increasingly cramped spaces. It has accelerated a push to design products intended to maximize space, including multipurpose furniture and indoor hydroponic units.

IKEA said Delaktig was inspired by Apple Inc., which helped create today’s app universe by allowing developers to create them for the iPhone. The company said it is also taking a page from the car industry, building a common, resilient platform upon which to create different models.

“People hack anyway; we want to encourage that,” said James Futcher, IKEA’s creative lead for the new product.

Source: The Wall Street Journal