Forget those rickety particle board shelves. The Swedish furniture giant’s new collection doesn’t require assembly and is built to move.
Picture this: you’re 19 and you’ve just moved into your first apartment. You have plenty of books and tchotchkes to store so you buy Ikea’s infamous Billy bookcase. It’s the most affordable shelving you could find without scouring Facebook Marketplace for half a lifetime and it fits all your stuff. A year passes. Your rent gets raised, you decide to move to another part of town with friends. You pack all of your odds and ends up into boxes, and break down the Billy to bring it with you. Once you get to your new place, try as you may, the Billy bookcase just won’t stand straight in the way it used to, and it now wobbles whenever anything bumps. It’s a story as old as flatpack furniture, and it’s one that Ikea’s latest collection might actually solve.
Kompishäng, which launches in U.S. stores on July 31 and online on August 15, includes 11 pieces that don’t require assembly and are designed to be easily moved. There’s range: a side table; a jute bag with handles that functions as a plant pot cover; a rolling bag on wheels that looks an awful lot like a Hulken; and a foldable desk with a built-in handle, among other first apartment basics. The smartest piece from the collection is probably the stools, which can nest like the Artek 60 for compact storage, or stand atop one another to create a shelving display. Since the pieces don’t have separate components, there aren’t pesky tools, oddly vague instructions, or the challenge of having to build them or reassemble them.
"This table isn’t just a temporary solution," says David Wahl, the designer of the collection’s foldable red table pictured here. "It’s designed to accompany life’s transitions—equally at home in a first apartment, a family house, or even a retirement space."
Courtesy of Ikea
The idea for Kompishäng—an Ikea-ism for "hanging out with friends"— was inspired by conversations between twentysomethings living in Central London and Ikea staff. Two recent industrial design graduates working as interns at Ikea also brought their firsthand experience. With input from a young set, Ikea aimed to address the most persistent irritations one faces at that particular phase of your life, namely moving often, sharing furniture with flatmates, and not having an easy way to transport anything. This involved practical solutions, like a metal bookend that sits on the floor and holds titles in place, and stylistic guidance: the interns felt that a more neutral color palette, rather than the bolds Ikea is known for, would help bring calm to these transient spaces.
"We wanted to create a collection that could be moved with your body alone. Without needing a car," Ikea designer Wiebke Braasch said in a statement shared with Dwell. "Moving plants was a bigger problem than I ever imagined, and it was fun to come up with a new solution that makes it easier to both carry and protect them while moving." Given how geared the pieces are toward lowkey moves, the practicality of these pieces also depends on them being sturdy enough that they can hold up against the banging and shoving required of those of us who move by Uber, or even the subway. Though vintage Ikea furniture may command high prices nowadays, newer pieces aren’t particularly known for their longevity.
The furniture in Kompishäng is low profile, but that’s one of its greatest assets. When dinnertime is over, the table can be folded away and the stools can cleanly stack atop each other.
Courtesy of Ikea
Even with its subdued color palette and solutions-oriented design, the furnishings mercifully still have personality; they look like they’d get along easier with used furniture than some of the more playful Ikea designs (we’re looking at you, inflatable chair). It’s also easy to imagine a new grad appreciating being able to fold this stuff up and sling it over their shoulder when it comes time to move across town. Or, if they manage to settle into some place for longer than a year, that it’ll outlast the lease.
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