Ikea Archives - Improvised Life

Ephemeral Curtains and Room Dividers Strung on Wires Are Easy to Do

In these images of gauzy curtains hung on simple wires via Clothier Aurelie Lecuyer, the lack of an imposing curtain rod achieves a pleasingly minimalist and ephemeral quality that’s easy and inexpensive…

Disappear Visual Clutter with Uniform Cardboard Boxes a la Laura Handler + Andy Warhol)

If you have a lot of small items, projects or papers to store, and an eye that is pained by visual busyness, I recommend a strategy used by designer Laura Handler and Andy Warhol:

Hi/Low: Round Porthole Mirrors for a Haiku-like View

You have only to search MIRROR on Improvised Life to find evidence of an obsession. Not to look at one’s self. But to angle them in such a way as to SEE a bigger view. Take these port-hole mirrors, for example…and Basho’s haiku…

Tailored, Adjustable Bed Skirt from Ready-Made Curtains

After we transformed a linen sheet into a bedskirt, we stumbled on Eileen Fisher’s clever bedskirt made of three adjustable panels of fabric. You just tuck each panel beneath the mattress at the foot and sides of the bed to adjust it to any length you like. We started mulling how to make our own. Then we had a brainstorm.

Rough-stitched Ripped Linen Pillow Covers

Just as we were wrapping our head around learning to use our new sewing machine, we noticed these big pillow covers on IKEA’S blog Livet Hemma… …which sent us hunting around Ikea USA to discover that it is selling 100% linen by the yard for 7.99 a 59″ yard in white and gray. We’ve long been fans…

Storage Cage Closets Then and Now

Was visionary designer Paul D’Urso’s 1980’s cyclone fence clothes closet the roots of Ikea’s recent iteration?

soapbox is a stylish, durable ikea alternative

soapbox: stylish, durable ikea alternative

(Video link here.) Recently, while discussing a particuarly stylish Ikea creation, our friend Maria remarked: “I figure Ikea’s stuff is only good for about 5 years.” Suddenly, we flashed on all the discarded particle board Ikea storage units we’d seen on New York City streets. In the long run, Ikea can simply be a waste…

the ikea ‘frosta stool’ saga (tell us what you think!)

Ever since we wrote about the discontinuation in America of Ikea’s great Alvar-Aalto-esque Frosta stool, – it is widely available in Europe – we have been involved in a curious correspondence with Ikea’s Customer Service Department; it has been a bit “like pulling teeth” (though much more pleasant) to get the information we are looking…

kitchen cabinets in colors vs the trend to black (and ikea’s new look)

We just thinking how refreshing these colored cabinets are as opposed to our usual default WHITE, and were reminded of the multi-colored cabinets we posted sometime back AND Pascal Anson’s wonderful array of mismatched cabinet doors. Then we came across photos of Ikea’s new look at Core 77: a clear mainstreaming of the trend to…

essential Ikea: stacking stool

Among Ikea‘s constantly updating home furnishings offerings, are a handful of constants that represent perfect, enduring, truly practical design at a really good price, and that don’t scream Ikea. My favorite is the Frosta stool***, a $12.99 birch veneer version of Alvar Aalto’s classic mid-century stool. I have four in my office and they are…