I am sitting with the man who decides what more than 900 million buyers around the world will want in their homes next. We are at Ikea Its headquarters are in Älmhult, a small Swedish town that most people have never heard of, let alone can find on a map.
Johan Ejdemo began his career in furniture at the age of 15 when he began training as a cabinetmaker. Today, he is serving a life sentence at Ikea, having worked at the company for almost 30 years. As head of design, he leads an in-house team of 20, as well as a roster of independent designers, shaping the 1,500 to 2,000 new products the company launches each year.
Johan Ejdemo, Ikea’s head of design, talks to WIRED about his favorite Ikea pieces.
Courtesy of IKEA
Last month he launched the PS2026 collectionthe tenth edition of the brand’s economic design series, which returns after a nine-year hiatus. Its 44 pieces are built around the concept of “playful functionality” and include a shape-changing floor lamp, a rocking bench and an inflatable chair (tested by catsnothing less). All items are affordable, ranging from $5 to $500.
Considering the brand has worked with such notable designers as Verner Panton, Tom Dixon and Gillis Lundgren, and vintage Ikea gear is now it goes for thousandsit seemed only fitting to grill the impeccably dressed and soft-spoken Ejdemo on the Ikea pieces he personally purchased for his own home. Has this cabinetmaker ever purchased a Billy bookcase? Let’s find out.
Silversida recycled ceramic tableware
“I have this Silversida with blue polka dots recycled ceramic bowls and plates from the collection designed by our in-house designer Henrik Preutz, who also created the chair in the PS 2026 collection. I just think it’s a beautiful thing to be able to recycle ceramics, because normally they end up in landfills.
“Really nice shapes, versatile shapes, easy to use for lots of different things. And I like these blue dots. This dot painting is very traditional Scandinavian – it’s the way you painted your walls. To decorate, you did this dot painting. I like that it’s an industrial production line here, but there are still handmade dot paintings in this line.”
“I chose this bowl specifically because the painter failed [the bowl] and it ended up outside. I love it. Now, someone would have seen this as a mistake, but I love this one. Its imperfection. Obviously, that’s the one I’ll take, the only one.
Ejdemo loves Ikea roasters…
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
…and the imperfect Silversida plates and bowls.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
Concise roasting dishes
“I really like cooking. At school, I was all for becoming a chef. Then came carpentry. But my daughter became a chef, and she’s much better than me. This curiosity about food has always been in our family. I have professional-level metal pans, but all my others are ours. Concise metal trays. I use them for everything, even preparing food, and you have different sizes.
Customized Faktum kitchen system
“I moved into the house I live in 20 years ago now or more. I installed this kitchen from Ikea and I still have it. Then it was Donow it is Method. But I’m also a carpenter, so my kitchen island is kind of made by me, but it has Ikea cabinets in it. Also [underneath the wall units] I built in a frame with open compartments, so this is my own addition. I also sanded all the doors and hand painted them, because my house is very imperfect, so the [factory] a perfect industrial lacquer, really beautiful and high quality, just a little too contrasty.
“For over 20 years I’ve had a hinge on the door under the sink that’s starting to come loose, but I can easily fix it. I just haven’t been able to take care of it. Otherwise, everything works perfectly fine. The kitchen is used all the time, so it’s quality.”
Ejdemo customized her Faktum kitchen with additional storage, as well as her “party-ready” kitchen island with a much-used Bekväm step stool and Norbo folding table.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
Norbo folding table
“I have this little Norbo folding table.[It’snolongeravailablebutit’ssimilartothe[It’snolongeravailablebutit’ssimilartotheNorberg.]It fits perfectly at the end of my kitchen island. I’m not that picky about having the exact same woods in a room. I have a mix of woods. I like wood. Whether it’s oak, walnut, rosewood, beach or pine, it doesn’t really matter. Just to have that little extra serving space. When it’s Christmas, Easter or a party, this one goes up and transforms the space a little.
Comfortable stepladder
“So I have the Comfortable stepladder also, of course, the classic steps. It’s kind of diminished over the years. Mine dates from the first version when it was a little oversized, but lovely. It’s been with me for a long time. It is covered in paint stains. It shows the time.
The white PS cabinet from 1999 is Ejdemo’s favorite Ikea furniture…
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
…so much so that he scattered them all over his house – and they remain in the current collection.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
PS cabinet
“This is my favorite Ikea piece, and it’s a PS piece from 1999. The Metal cabinet in white. I have plenty. I have a few lined up next to the dining table in a sort of open dining room. And I have one in the hallway with shoes in it. And actually, in the room behind the hallway there is a home office and another one with papers, like a filing cabinet. I actually didn’t buy them for this house. I’ve had them in some places before, so they’re over 20 years old. One of them may be a little newer, but the majority are over 20 years old. And they are always fantastic. We still sell them like this.
Ejdemo purchased an original vintage PS clock at a street sale.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
PS 1995 Clock
“The clockobviously. It’s a PS product, but it has nothing to do with me. I found this maybe five years ago at a little vintage sale. This is the original from 1995, and it was in perfect condition. We were just traveling and stopped for lunch and then drove through and saw it. Did I tell the salesman that I worked at Ikea? No, but I did it afterwards, and she was really happy because she had another one, so she knew she could probably make a little more money for it. I paid what she wanted, it was a good deal.
“This one, original, has a facade in lacquered MDF wood. we are selling todayit is a pressed metal facade. And this red color PS, it’s like a darker red. It’s the red PS that we painted on [Ikea HQ] main entrance. Then, just a few years ago, we repainted all the rails and barriers in this PS red. Everyone was wondering why this red? Well, it’s the original red PS, so it has a bit of history.
The Svarva lamp can be twisted into different shapes.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
PS Svarva Floor Lamp
“Some things I’ve done myself, like this. Svarva lamp we created with the Front design group for the PS 2009 collection. They were quite recent and we therefore created an armchair and this lamp. The desire was to make a lamp in turned wood, but we also had to be able to twist it and articulate it.
“I thought it would be very difficult to do. With a colleague in the lighting industry at the time, I went to Hungary to this factory that was producing lamps for us. They only made metal tubes, so we were a little hesitant if they would be able to solve this problem. But they made models based on the designers’ drawings. So we went there to see, and there it was. It was this floor lamp, and also a table lamp where the wooden beads went in a circle then came back up, like a snake.
“What we didn’t know was that next to the lamp factory was this factory that made the turned wooden beads, the little individual pieces that we put together. None of us knew that. It was just pure happenstance. So they would turn these wooden beads, and the lamp factory would put them on the metal tubes, like on a necklace. They had very little to do, so they were happy to have the business.”
A Sinka cabinet resides in the Ejdemo corridor.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
PS Sinka cabinet
“I have another favorite from this PS 2009 collection, it’s in my hallway. PS Sinkawith small drawers with wooden base. Sinka means “dovetail” in Swedish, hence the name explaining this construction.
“But the problem we had with this one was that the packaging volume was too big. So we made each drawer slightly shallower. So four drawers stack inside each other. And four more drawers stack. There’s a little stopper on the back when you push them in, so they stop evenly at the front. There’s also a hidden compartment behind the smallest drawer. Really good drawers for all that stuff lying around and which are in the way. In the top one, I have all my keys that I don’t know where they go.
PS Jonsberg vases
“I have this vase from the PS collection to hold the cables[onmySamsung[onmySamsungSerif Television]. It was a set, the Jonsberg vases by Hella Jongerius. There were four in different ceramic techniques. I had all four, but the terracotta one broke, which is a shame.[ThisiscertainlythecaseThese$39VasesAreSellingOutNow[ItcertainlyisThesevasesnowsellused for $1,700 for a complete set.]
“They take inspiration from different regions, and the different techniques are beautiful. I use the big black one for toilet paper in a bathroom. It’s not a disrespect to the design. It’s just a really good design to stand there, and it makes the bathroom beautiful, and it can hold the toilet paper. So why have something like an ugly stick? It’s good for that.”
Pax cabinets
“Pax. We need to mention Pax. I Pax cabinets in a few rooms, but I’m also a bit particular. As in the kitchen, these veneer doors were sanded and painted by hand by me, just to adapt them to my house, to my space. I sometimes repaint them.
Chipped Spraka pepper mills.
Courtesy of Johan Ejdemo
Crack pepper mills
“I have this pepper mills. One for white pepper, one for black pepper. It was also in a PS collection. We did it with Marcus Arvonen. These pepper mills are beautiful, and they’ve also been around for about 20 years. They are quite big. A smaller version came later, but I like these.
“They have their chips, yes, but that just makes them prettier. It’s age. They exist and are used every day. Everything has a little imperfection. You can spend your whole life worrying about it, but there should be some imperfection in life. Fix it? Then something else needs to be fixed. It moves. Leave it, be proud.”
Where is the Billy or Kallax library?
“I don’t have any Bowl in the house now. But there were some! Kallax? I own a lot. Brilliant piece. Really good for vinyl, because that’s the era they come from. I listen to a lot of vinyl.