Select furniture that lives longer

How to choose furniture that lives longer

By 2030, the potential to repurpose, repair, reuse, resell or recycle will be built-in to every IKEA product. Of course, even today, there’s usually an easy and satisfying way to prolong the life of your furniture – rather than send it to the scrapheap.

Furniture that adapts to the future

As your family grows, your lifestyle changes or your tastes mature, you might be grateful for your modular furniture. Rather than make a big upfront purchase that you later need to replace, you can add simply the modules that you need, as and when you need them. Modular furniture can be the affordable way to make sure that you can easily adapt your home furnishings to a new living situation.

Any furniture that’s both durable and multifunctional will more than pay you back over time. For example, with a bed that has built-in storage you can enjoy many years of restful sleep – and a less cluttered bedroom at the same time.

Products that can adapt as needs change are perhaps even more useful when you live with children, who can quickly outgrow their furniture. The MINNEN extendable bed helps you to neatly avoid the cost and hassle of buying a new bed with every growth spurt.

New furniture – or refreshed furniture?

Eventually, your well-used furniture can start to show signs of everyday wear and tear. Often, you can give it a whole new lease of life with very little cost or effort.

If your sofa has washable and replaceable covers, for example, you can easily get a just-new feeling whenever you fancy. You can always keep the sofa clean and fresh – or totally reinvent the look with a change of colours and patterns.

A lick of paint or stain can add extra durability to wooden furniture such as tables, chairs and storage systems. They’ll better withstand the knocks and scrapes of daily use.

Can you fix it? Yes, you can

Time takes a toll on even the most durable products. But, often, you only need to make a minor repair to get that chair, table or sofa back into everyday service. And you hardly need to be an expert to do so. You probably put together the furniture in the first place, so you already know what’s what.

With that in mind, you can find most of the spare parts that you might need through IKEA customer service. Many people enjoy the satisfaction of mending and reusing, rather than throwing away – your wallet and the environment will also feel the benefit.

With the launch of the IKEA buy back & resell service, you can receive in-store credit and give your used IKEA furniture a second life. There’ll be no need to recycle or dump your old stuff if the products are in a resellable condition.

Preserving and renewing your furniture

If you want to get more value and a longer life from your furniture, there are several affordable products in the IKEA range that can help. Here are some ideas.