IKEA celebrates decade of smart living in Greece
Some people have a gift for creating homes and this is why they go at it over and over again. Not the ones who besides hiring an interior decorator also require the services of a feng shui consultant — whom they take along to appointments with real estate agents — but amateurs of the practice. The ones who dare to break the rules, change, empty and again fill up their private spaces: their homes.
Featuring the familiar blue and yellow logo, a new luxury coffee-table publication, ?IKEA 10 Years Smart Living in Greece,? celebrates the 10th anniversary of Swedish home products giant IKEA in Greece. The Greek tome also offers the opportunity to reflect on how aesthetics have changed over the last decade.
The idea is a rather clever one: This is the story of furniture, carpets, sofas, tables and lamps and how they all translate into real homes for real people. It is told via a photographic journey through kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms, the kind of places which could be those of our neighbors or even our own — minus the dirty laundry and the socks lying on the floor. It is nearly impossible not to detect details that make up our own homes, the same curtain or mirror, for instance, which is given a twist or combined in another way.
What you come across here is the definition of Scandinavian minimalism: purity of form and contemporary design trends. From then on, however, it?s a do-it-yourself situation. For a home to be practical and beautiful, it needs to have a soul. While this kind of ?democratic design? is accessible to all, there are certain traps attached to it; at the end of the day it has to do with each user?s personal taste.
The 275-page anniversary edition covers a total of 55 interiors incorporating IKEA?s philosophy, principals and products by showcasing a series of realistic applications of various ideas regarding the interior design of youthful rooms, contemporary urban flats, office spaces and guesthouses around Greece.
You know that there is absolutely no space left in the children?s room for even the tiniest new object, but somehow, you can?t avoid taking a look at the cute armchair?s name.
The Greek publication ?IKEA 10 Years Smart Living in Greece? is available at Papasotiriou book stores and from IKEA outlets in Greece.
