IKEA--simple design

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

In studying biology I learned to appreciate that all creatures great and small are perfectly designed for their niche. Form and function live in a seamless union. It’s very Disney Lion-King Circle of life-like.

I am in the process of renovating and redecorating my third floor. Every step of the way I am mindful to factor the size of the space, its function now that it has become guest quarters, and cost. I want good design, practicality, visual appeal and a fair price. And so I spent two hours last Saturday studying the rooms at IKEA.

IKEA fascinates me. Everything is so well organized and thought-out. Things are jam-packed but not cluttered. And the smaller the space, the better the design.  Nothing is larger or more complicated than it needs to be. The lines are clean. Many things serve more than one purpose. I look around and am forever saying Oh my God-- that is so smart!

It makes my imagination soar.

And what I have learned is that furniture, like a one celled amoeba, just needs a simple design. It needs to work for the purpose for which it was intended. An amoeba does not need to be a paramecium. A table only needs four legs and a smooth surface to clean. Beauty is skin deep--veneer. And lifespan need not be excessive—things need to only last as long as its niche dictates.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. The founder of IKEA, in addition to being inspired by a family who could not fit a 4 legged coffee table into their vehicle, must have also read Ecclesiastes.