

Hacking Ikea products to make them personal - jlangenauer
http://www.thisismykea.com/

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tptacek
Wow, that was disappointing.

In _Shop Class As Soulcraft_, there's a chapter about the death of the
tinkering spirit in American culture, where he takes to task Build A Bear
Workshop (although, _come on_ , they're kids!) and a bike manufacturer that
allows enthusiasts to "customize" their bikes by custom-ordering variants of
the bike or buying bolt-on kit parts. This site made me think of that.

It's all well and good, I guess, to stick decals on your Ikea furniture. I was
just hoping for actual woodworking.

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alexophile
<http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/>

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faz
Now that's what I call a real Ikea hack. Thanks for the link @alexophile.

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benhoyt
I'm not sure I'd call this "hacking" (I expected a bed to be pulled apart and
turned into something else). This is a fun idea, but it's simply "decorating".

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thibaut_barrere
It's a great marketing hack actually.

Edit: why the downvotes really ? I really believe it's a clever way to build
upon an existing brand while providing a service that people I know are
willing to use.

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jonhendry
Really it's more a case of extending the 'funky vinyl decal' market from
laptops and other small electronics to Ikea furniture.

Limiting it to (some) Ikea furniture gives them a selection of items of known
sizes to work with when sizing and cutting the decals.

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ulf
Awesome startup concept! Take a product that everybody knows and almost
everybody buys. Add some sort of modification that will appeal to a lot of
people. Let your users create the merchandise and start earning.

Very well done!

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ancymon
It's odd that LACK table costs $8 but to decorate it you have to spend at
least €12.

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m_eiman
Not odd at all. There's probably a slight difference in the number of LACK
tables built vs these prints…

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johnwatson11218
I read an article a while back ( not the story I read but the same idea
<http://wadias.in/site/arzan/blog/ikea-and-india/>) that talked about how in
India the new middle class want Ikea stuff but they aren't there yet. So these
people will take Ikea catalogs to local craftsmen and have them produce
furniture that looks just like the stuff in the catalog. I would suspect that
the quality is much higher (materials and whatnot).

Personally when I am in Ikea I think that where things are headed is to make
the stuff infinitely customizable using the website. I mean image if you went
to their site and started with one of the basic notions like 'chair', 'table',
or 'shelf' and could (w/in reason) stretch and distort the base product. Then
they figure out how much it would cost to build that and ship it to you. Maybe
even work out custom assembly instructions etc. It would be cool to stretch a
table and watch the price change continuously then maybe jump up quickly. You
could investigate and see that at that length it would require an extra piece
of metal for support for example.

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dreur
I wish they could support Inkscape. Anyone wants some XKCD pictures on their
furnitures? Now that I want to see

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justliving
that would be great indeed! Both for inkscape as well as for XKCD, dilbert
would be cool as well, though :-)

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danielnicollet
sorry for the meta comment here but how can such a post end on the front page?
Custom furniture stickers. OK there is a startup. This seems so out of place
don't you think?

EDIT: Please no need to downvote me if you disagree - just state your POV. Thx

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ruchi
It's about identification of the market and implementation details. See
comment by ulf <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1924463>

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danielnicollet
points well taken, but would it be OK to then post a few years ago about this
for instance which also showed (now proven) promising prospects based on a
winning marketing strategy:
[http://www.crainsnewyork.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=CN&#...</a>

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kdeldycke
I have a friend at <http://maomium.com> who is customizing (or decorating, as
you wish) standard Ikea furnitures. Each piece is unique as he draw everything
by hand (lots of work and dedication involved here).

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thomasfl
Another great idea is Comfort Works, which makes slipcovers to Ikea sofas:
<http://www.comfort-works.com/>.

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chopsueyar
What, no Karlstad?

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dreur
Brillant concept :) Will have to try it out soon!

There is some latin on the How to cover page (last step)

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tunaslut
did you want your title tag to be "customize _you_ Ikea furniture" as in the
"learn you a <programming language>"? or should you have an "r" in there?

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ubasu
I'm surprised that page calls IKEA furniture "well-designed". To me, and to
some other people I know, it seems that they work hard to make it s ugly as
possible. Or at least pretty bland.

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jonhendry
Consider the competition, at least in the US, in the 'cheap assemble-it-
yourself furniture" space.

IKEA looks better than the stuff sold at Wal-Mart or Target, especially the
stuff they were selling 20 years ago before IKEA had many stores in the US.
(Let alone the smaller regional retailers, like Bradlees and Caldor in the
northeast.)

Clearly, if you've got the money to spend, you can get better-looking, longer-
lasting furniture. But if you're only furnishing a dorm, or an apartment, and
aren't decorating a house or other long-term residence, IKEA's pretty good.

~~~
m_eiman
Jonathan Coulton - IKEA:
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6925417691218729871>

