IKEA fatigue hits Beijing

And it just opened a mammoth new store, too!

It was bound to happen sooner or later. The honeymoon with spartan Scandinavian DIY furniture is over, and Beijing’s hipsters have fallen out of love with IKEA.

Or at least that’s the story told by Y Weekend, which concludes, “It’s a fearsome state of affairs when everyone’s home is identical, since a home is meant to be a person’s most private and individual place.” The paper interviewed what is surely a representative sample of Beijing’s young creative types in its latest issue (cover of B section at left). One of those interviewed is a Beijing-based fashion reporter, whose reponse is typical:

I used to love IKEA, and even now in my room, my bed is from IKEA, my desk is from IKEA, my bookcase is from IKEA, my wardrobe is from IKEA, and I even have IKEA television brackets on my wall.

But I have discovered that I don’t really love IKEA at all, because I found that everyone around me loves IKEA so much. On our desks we have the same clocks, the same water glasses, and even the IKEA fan’s signature wooden puppet. When I merrily brought them into my office, I felt that my space was really something cool, but now, when everyone’s space is the same….

I currently like choosing things from smaller places, like Beijing’s Panjiayuan, or going to Shanghai’s Changle Road. I have gradually come to understand why those “life-ists” and “artists” are always stressing the power of details; since those details are where the creator has invested his efforts, people will fall in love because they are affected by the precision and effort of those details. At IKEA, however, you can’t find such things – in fact, at IKEA, you are really falling in love with a feeling.

Other interviewees have been overseas, where they have discovered that far from being an elite brand, IKEA is seen as a cheap, efficient solution to furnishing a home.

YW also talked to Hong Kong cartoonist and designer Craig Au-Yeung, who provided the conclusion quoted above. He’s more appreciative of the Muji (无印良品) brand of furniture, which he describes as “more complete and closer to nature” than IKEA. It also plays better with other brands, he says. It doesn’t, however, have a cute, poseable wooden man as a mascot for its fanclub.