Hi Loves~

I posted on my Instagram sometime back in January that I’ll be working alongside IKEA, our friendly furniture store. I am very excited to be part of this blogger program because I love interior design and exploring home & living ideas. And as part of the program we were all invited down for an intimate and cozy tour at their Tampines showroom/store. Here’s photos from that day!

A huge showroom for all your home-living needs! At the entrance, there are 5 rooms which are custom made, the size and layout is localized. For example, Singapore rooms are smaller while US showrooms would be bigger. Each of the showroom costs $30,000-40,000 to create and IKEA team makes about 1000 home visits in the country as part of their survey and research. It takes about 8-10 weeks to complete each showroom area; which begins when the sales team write the brief to solve the frustration or meet the needs of the clients. Then the designers sketch a rough layout, consults and fine tunes the design with the sales team. Then it takes time to construct the showroom and 5 days to execute the design.

IKEA is all about creating a better everyday life for the many people. To do so, they create affordable yet great quality design, because the design starts from the price before the sourcing of material and production.

Showrooms specially designed according to actual layouts, reminds me of the showflats which I am so familiar with in my line of work as a real estate agent, heh.

We were given the tour by Malcolm, who is the incharge of the store with more than a decade of experience in IKEA. He hails from Australia and has worked in China and been in Singapore for many years. He is super knowledgeable about IKEA’s history and he is a walking IKEA catalogue because during the tour he basically just shared about key / iconic products without a book/brochure and purely from memory – that’s passion right there!

This coffee table is actually an iconic 50s design that’s been brought back and it tells the story of how IKEA was birthed, the founder had a coffee table which couldn’t fit into the boot of his car and so he thought of how it would be good to have detachable coffee table legs so that it can fold flat in the car. And that’s how IKEA is able to minimize cost; by flat packing when they ship products abroad and when customers can also deliver their own purchases home.

Some of the showrooms are under the Stockholm range, which signifies quality. Stockholm refers to the Swedish city that’s also famous for its Scandinavian design.

IKEA’s PS collection are iconic and there are only 20 products released under the PS collection each year, an example is the stool above.

There are more bamboo materials in IKEA now as it’s a sustainable material which grows fast.

There are many affordable kitchen solutions for your home at IKEA. 

Check out this nifty side table with special cable storage.

Can you believe that IKEA spends $4 million (not sure in SGD or USD) buying print licenses from Europe museums and sometimes using 100-150 years old pattern designs for their textiles! Life must be pretty swanky if you’re the staff visiting museums buying prints for IKEA… 😀

Some bedroom solutions and ideas in IKEA.

This is Nordli, a customizable storage solution.

Another PS product, a very cute and unique lamp.

Another PS product, inspired by old Russian wooden clocks that’s used to hide vodka… Cute background story right?

An IKEA old school alarm that’s sure to wake you up!

Edible markers, anyone? Safe for kids!

Valentines Day surprise for your wife/hubby, maybe?

This smart cup design is stackable and can fit 962 cups on one palette for transport. The base has a little space so that water drains out, shows that IKEA design provides for good form and function.

IKEA also has solid pots with thoughtful and ergonomic design.

More nifty IKEA designs, 1) hooks for every surface, 2) shallower sinks help saves water and product costs and 3) another unique IKEA lamp that’s made of plastic even though it looks like glass!

IKEA wooden horse sculpture, that will cost a few hundreds of dollars originally (hand made) but now made affordable.

It’s the year of the Goat coming right up this CNY, I’ll be making a trip down to get my house ready for the festivities. 🙂

Ikea’s huge warehouse and storage. Always found it super cool to shop in the warehouse, a place we usually only watch on drama.

Rolled and compressed mattresses, IKEA can now double the volume with the same transport system and this cost savings is brought to the customers.

We ended the tour with an ice cream treat! Here’s my ridiculously happy face, lol. #canthelpthatIhaveasoftspotforsoftserve

 

We had the privilege to visit IKEA office. And I’m totally envious of this whole rack of materials to read !

Then we proceeded to a class by In Merry Motion to make our own DIY Terrararium!

How to make your own DIY terrarium?

Find glasses, scrap materials like straws, papers and little alphabets.

Such pretty crafts!

You’ll have to cut out leaves and glue them together… Add in little animal toys to finish! I had to leave earlier that day and couldn’t join the rest for lunch… but I will be back for the chicken wings and meatballs!!! 😛

Thank you IKEA Singapore, BBH and In Merry Motion for hosting us that day! <3

x

Ena