Introduction: Your Ikea Office at Home

About: art director at Teatro e Marionetas de Mandragora random stuff collector / programmer wannabe / open source

My place can be improved with some rugs, more BILLYs and FIRAs and some doors for my actual BILLYs.

We buy at IKEA because we like the looks of them items and enjoy the price as well. So let's see how I managed to get myself a simple home office.

IKEA has its own 3D planning software but I prefer to use others that I'm more used to. Yet, any CAD software will do.
So I start by measuring the place I want to fill up. It's important to draw the power sources, TV/cable spot... everything.
It's good practice to draw a circle representing a person and move it all around just to check if it's possible to move in the place you're creating. I use a 60cm diameter circle.
All the labels here are in Portuguese though. Sorry. But the office is basically a bunch of shelf and two tables. Off course I didn't ended there but I do prefer to buy things slowly in order to try them out before buying a bunch more. That way you'll be able to truly know what you're going to need.
It's important to say that in your drawings, even when working with real sizes, the entire space appears to be bigger and the furniture smaller. Don't forget that you'll need space to move around. Imagine yourself with more people there. Draw more circles.
I'll be talking more about my home office but here's some simple studies for the bedrooms also.

IKEA website is well organized and they have the furniture measures there. SWEET...!
Try different furnitures and different arrangements. Since my colour pallet is just black, gray and white it was easier to choose. So I only made a 2D plan.

Ok, then you've chosen what you need and what you want (different things there), and you've gathered all the codes to be easier to find them at the store. But don't forget to recheck everything at there expo. Sometimes things look different live.
When leaving the store remember to check the products they have at a smaller price on the second opportunity items section. Sometimes they just don't have the original package. Another way to look at them is that you're not going to have any trouble assembling (just need the wagon to take it home).
I live at an apartment without an elevator so YES, I want to pay them to bring it home. If you cry a little they even transport those second opportunity objects.


Things you must have:

BILLY (never enough)
FIRA (never enough)
glass on top of your working tables

Have fun!

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