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The Nostalgic Warmth of IKEA's New Collection

Ikea's new collaboration, VARMBLIXT, with award-winning Dutch-New Zealand designer Sabine Marcelis ‘explores the emotional effects of light at home’. It has an art-deco, vintage feel.

She has created several lights and home objects that bring warmth and small accents of art into space.

The lights play around with form and warmth to create portals of light that appear to radiate heat. They serve as both art pieces as well as light fittings becoming sculptural and deliberate statement pieces even when they are turned off.

Marcelis has also created bowls and glassware to continue her experiment with light in everyday objects of the home. Her bowls use her signature soft doughnut design, and their shiny, coloured-glass finish plays with light and perspective to carry light through them. They seem illuminated from within. Her colour choices are suggestive of coloured glass and crockery that was popular in the 70s and created bright and vibrant colour palettes in homes.

The pieces are reminiscent of the era spanning the 1950s to the 1970s, with harsh, blocked colour contrasting with soft curves and accents on furniture or lighting being the main focus of a space rather than patterned wallpaper or carpet.

The glasses are also inspired by vintage glass styles of the 60s and 70s. They use texture, and contrast of straight and curved to create play with light and form. They also serve as sculptural, and artistic pieces as well as for their original utility.

As well as reminding us of vintage eras, the collection is undoubtedly modern. It uses the orange and muted blue that is often seen in celebrity house tours of Architecture Digest. Rustic colour palettes and vintage-inspired interior design is becoming popular as people move towards more colour in the home without maximalism. Small accents of artistic nods towards vintage trends are seen a lot on the interior of Emma Chamberlin’s house designed by PROEM. In her interview she explains that she chose a translucent orange stepladder for her dressing room, allowing the object to serve as décor as well as a function.

The collection is an important artistic collaboration with Ikea, who are known for their expert use of space economisation, and storage utility. Interestingly, they have chosen to create what is essentially a collection of art-like installations for the home, and I believe that it is a clever choice to diversify those that will be interested in the release. People that wouldn’t previously look to Ikea for home furnishings due to stylistic differences will now be more aware of their future artistic projects.