Furniture designers don’t often get the chance to correct their mistakes: Their products are on the market for a couple of years and, with few awesomely popular exceptions, eventually get dropped from their manufacturers’ catalogs to make room for new stock. But Ikea, the go-to big box for affordable Scandinavian design, has given its designers the opportunity to revise their work (as well as that of their predecessors), adding increased functionality and sustainability. “[We] challenged our designers to bring their designs forward with innovative products that belong in the future,” Janice Simonsen, Ikea’s design spokesperson, says.
The results make their...