30 Times People ‘Hacked’ IKEA Furniture And Shared Their Genius Tips Online (New Pics)

Bored Panda wanted to get design expert Ariane's opinion about why the furniture made by IKEA is so ubiquitous and appeals to so many people around the world.

"IKEA furniture is both classic and modern. It has clean lines, unobtrusive handles and is sturdy, reliable, and great value," the editor at These Three Rooms shared with us.

"It manages to be all these things across a wide range of styles. It's ubiquitous partly because of its Scandinavian style—Scandi has been a huge trend in interiors for a long time. It has a calming feel and suits pretty much any design scheme."

Meanwhile, the expert shed some light on the furniture we'll see trending in 2023.

"Chunky, solid furniture is very on-trend right now," Ariane, the editor at These Three Rooms, revealed to Bored Panda.

"Curved designs are also very popular, such as curved coffee tables and dining tables. In terms of materials, you'll see a lot of chairs covered in bouclé and velvet."

The r/ikeahacks subreddit was created all the way back in 2011. But it wasn’t until redditor u/6745408 took over as the moderator that the online community truly began to flourish. They told Bored Panda that the subreddit is “chugging along nicely.”

They also shared a cool IKEA hack they saw on Instagram with us. They said that it's worth an honorable mention and would "make for a nice corner liquor cabinet" or something similar.

During an earlier interview with the moderator, Bored Panda learned more about the subreddit, its history, and how the group changed over time.

“I’m not sure who started it, but one night I was looking for a way to make the POÄNG chair more ergonomic or even less bouncy,” moderator u/6745408 told Bored Panda earlier.

“I found /r/ikeahacks with a few hundred subscribers and a lot of spam and no moderators. I figured I’d request the sub, set up some simple automation to clean it up and find someone to mod it,” they revealed.

The POÄNG chair project never came to fruition. However, the upside was that redditor u/6745408 took over managing r/ikeahacks. This was a huge step in the right direction, as the subreddit began steadily growing under new leadership.

According to the mod, r/ikeahacks is “a really nice community, for the most part. The ideas people come up with are really great, too.” Pretty much everyone who’s a member of the sub is interested in modding IKEA furniture. While many put their ideas to practice, others stick around for the awesome pics and interior design inspiration.

“Flat-packed furniture isn’t far off from LEGO. Even simple hacks like adding legs to a shelving unit can elevate a piece of furniture. A lot of IKEA furniture is nice enough on its own, but building in shelving units, for instance, can really make a place feel like a permanent space, which is important,” the moderator told Bored Panda back in May.

“When it comes down to it, if your space needs something, you can usually find the parts to create the perfect piece of furniture, even if it takes a little planning and elbow grease,” the mod explained that flexibility and imagination are key.

There are only three rules that the community members have to follow. Their posts have to be on-point, fresh, and safe. For instance, if the post doesn’t contain “any useful information for IKEA Hackers,” it shouldn’t be posted in the first place.

What’s more, redditors should avoid reposting old content for the sake of attention and “cheap karma.” Finally, there’s no room for any hacks that are unsafe and could lead to severe injury.

Most people can intuitively tell whether a product is well-designed, even if they might not be be able to articulate it very well. Usually, if something’s designed poorly, there’s just ‘something off.’ It might be an unergonomic design, an imbalance focus on aesthetics over function, or something else entirely.

During a previous interview, Tim Antoniuk, a design specialist from the University of Alberta, explained to Bored Panda the first impressions really matter in the world of design. 

Tim Antoniuk, from the University of Alberta, explained to Bored Panda during an earlier interview that people can intuitively tell if something is designed well or poorly. First impressions really do matter when it comes to design. And as the world continues to rapidly change and evolve around us, we come to realize that some designs aren’t as timeless as we previously thought. However, furniture tends to be more ubiquitous.

“As new layers get added into our lives, things naturally have an evolutionary cycle. This is different from furniture which naturally can be more ubiquitous and designed to fit the human body,” Antoniuk told Bored Panda earlier.

Our personal tastes muddy the waters a little bit, meaning it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between what’s a quality design and what’s a subjective preference.

"The gray area comes in when people start to talk about taste and about degrees of aesthetic. I may love the design of Bauhaus furniture, for example, while somebody may feel that it is too cold and void of personality,” the design expert pointed out.

“Not unlike great art, I believe that much of what came from this era is ‘great design,’ in part because it represents an era and a philosophy. When we start to mix in discussions of taste and preference, that is where the gray areas of good and bad design get blurred.”