LoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyI'm sitting with the man who decides what more than 900 million shoppers globally will want next in their home. We're at Ikea HQ in Älmhult, a small Swedish town most people have never heard of, and even fewer could find on a map.
Johan Ejdemo started his furniture career at 15 when he began training as a cabinetmaker. Now, he’s an Ikea lifer, having notched up nearly 30 years at the company. As design manager, he leads an in-house team of 20, as well as a roster of freelance designers, shaping the 1,500 to 2,000 new products the company releases every year.
Ikea's design chief Johan Ejdemo talks WIRED through his favorite Ikea pieces.
Last month, he launched the PS 2026 collection, the tenth edition of the brand's budget design series, which has returned after a nine-year gap. Its 44 pieces are built around the concept of “playful functionality” and include a shape-shifting floor lamp, a see-saw bench, and an inflatable easy chair (tested by cats, no less). All of the items are affordable, ranging from $5 to $500.
Considering the brand has worked with designers as notable as Verner Panton, Tom Dixon, and Gillis Lundgren, and vintage Ikea gear is now going for thousands, it felt entirely proper to grill the impeccably dressed and softly spoken Ejdemo on what Ikea pieces he's personally bought for his own home. Has this cabinetmaker ever bought a Billy bookcase? Let's find out.
“I have these blue-dotted Silversida bowls and plates made out of recycled ceramics from the collection designed by our in-house designer Henrik Preutz, who also did the Chair in the 2026 PS collection. I just think it's a beautiful thing to be able to recycle ceramics, because normally they just end up becoming landfill.”
“Very nice shapes, versatile shapes, easy to use for a lot of different things. And I like these blue dots. This spot painting is very traditional Scandinavian—this was the way you painted your walls. To decorate you did this spot painting. I like this being an industrial production line here, but there's still hand-done spot painting going on in that line.”
“I picked this bowl specifically because the painter has missed [the bowl] and it ended up on the outside. I just love that. Now, someone would have seen this as a mistake, but I love that one. The imperfection of it. Obviously, that's the one I will take—the unique one.”
… and the imperfect Silversida plates and bowls.
“I like cooking a lot. At school, I was all for becoming a chef. Then came carpentry. But my daughter became a chef, and she's much better than I am. It's been in our family all the time, that curiosity in food. I have some pro-level metal pans, but all of my other ones are our Koncis metal trays. I use them for everything, even for preparing food, and you have different sizes.”
“The house where I'm living, I moved in 20 years ago now or more. I put in this kitchen from Ikea, and still have it. Then it was Faktum, now it's Metod. But I'm also a carpenter, so my kitchen island is kind of made by me, but it has Ikea cabinets in it. Also [underneath the wall units] I built in a frame with open compartments, so that's my own addition. I also sanded all the doors and hand-painted them, because my house is very imperfect, so the [factory] perfect industrial lacquer, which is really nice and high quality, just contrasted a little bit too much.”
“In over 20 years, I have one hinge on the door under the sink that is starting to come loose, but I can easily fix that. I just haven't gotten around to it. Otherwise, everything works perfectly well. The kitchen is in use all the time, so that's quality.”
Ejdemo customized his Faktum kitchen with extra storage, as well as his “party ready” kitchen island with a well-used Bekväm step stool and Norbo folding table.
“I have this little Norbo folding table. [It’s no longer available, but it’s similar to the Norberg.] It just fits perfectly at the end of my kitchen island. I'm not so picky about having exactly the same woods in a room. I have a mix of wood. I like wood. If it's oak or walnut or rosewood or beach or pine, it doesn't really matter. Just to have that little extra serving space. When it's Christmas or Easter or a party, this one goes up and transforms the space a little bit.”
“Then I have the Bekväm step stool also, of course—the classic steps. It has kind of shrunk over the years. Mine is from the first version when it was a little bit oversized, but lovely. It's been with me for a long time now. It's covered in paint spots. It shows time.”
The white 1999 PS Cabinet is Ejdemo's favorite item of Ikea furniture ever…
… so much so that he has them dotted all over his house—and it remains in the current collection.
“This is my absolute favorite Ikea piece—and this is a PS piece from 1999. The metal Cabinet in white. I have plenty of them. I have some standing in a row in next to the dining table in kind of an open-dining living room setting. And I have one in the hallway with shoes inside of it. And actually, in the room behind the hall there's a home office and another one with papers, like a filing cabinet. In fact, I didn't buy them for this house. I had them in places before, so they're over 20-plus years old. Maybe one of them is a little bit newer, but the majority are over 20 years. And they're still fantastic. We still sell them like this.”
Ejdemo snapped up an original vintage PS Clock at a street sale.
“The Clock, obviously. This is a PS product, but nothing to do with me. I found this maybe five years ago at a small vintage sale. This is the original one from '95, and it was in mint condition. We were just traveling by and stopped for lunch, then walked across and saw it. Did I tell the seller I worked at Ikea? No. But I did afterwards, and she was really happy because she had another one, so then she knew that she could probably get a little bit more money for it. I paid what she wanted, it was a good deal.”
“This original one has an MDF lacquered wooden front. The ones we sell today, it's a pressed metal front. And this PS red color, it's like a darker red. It's the PS red that we painted the [Ikea HQ] main entrance in. Then, just a few years ago, we repainted all of the rails and barriers in this PS red. Everyone was asking, why that red? Well, it's the original PS red, so it has a little bit of history in it.”
The Svarva lamp can be twisted into different shapes.
“I felt that that would be very difficult to do. Along with a colleague in lighting at the time, I went to Hungary to this factory that was producing lamps for us. It was all metal tubes that they were doing, so we were a little bit hesitant whether they should be able to solve this. But they made some mock-ups based on the designer drawings. So we went there to have a look, and it was standing there. It was this floor lamp, and also a table lamp where the wooden beads were going in a circle and then up, like a snake.”
“What we didn't know was that next to the lamp factory was this factory that was doing the turned wooden beads, the small individual pieces that we put together. None of us knew that. It was just pure serendipity. So they were turning these wooden beads, and the lamp factory was putting them on the metal tubes, just like on a necklace. They had very little to do, so they were happy to get the business.”
A Sinka Cabinet resides in Ejdemo's hallway.
“I have another favorite from that PS 2009 collection, it's in my hallway. The PS Sinka, with the small drawers with a wooden base. Sinka means “dovetail” in Swedish, so the name explaining that construction.”
“But the problem we had with this one was the packaging volume was too big. So what we did was each drawer is slightly shallower. So four drawers stack into each other. And four more drawers stack. There's a little bit of a stopper in the back when you push them in, so they stop evenly at the front. There's also a hidden compartment behind the smallest drawer. Really good drawers for all this stuff that is just lying around and getting in the way. In the top one I have all my keys that I no longer know where they go.”
“I have this vase from the PS collection to hold the cables [on my Samsung Serif TV]. It was a set, the Jonsberg vases by Hella Jongerius. There were four of them in different ceramic techniques. I had all four, but the terracotta one broke, which was a pity.” [It certainly is. These $39 vases now sell secondhand for $1,700 for a full set.]
“They're inspired by different regions, and the different techniques are beautiful. I use the big black one for toilet paper in one bathroom. It's not disrespect for the design. It's just such a good design to stand there, and it makes the bathroom beautiful, and it can fit the toilet roll. So, why have something like an ugly stick? It's nice for that.”
“Pax. We have to mention Pax. I have Pax wardrobes in a few rooms, but also I'm a little bit peculiar. Like in the kitchen, these veneer doors have been sanded and hand-painted by me, just to make them fit my house, in my space. I repaint them sometimes.”
“I have these pepper mills. One for white paper, one for black pepper. That was also in a PS collection. We did these with Marcus Arvonen. These pepper mills are beautiful, and these have been around for, like, 20 years as well. They are pretty tall. A smaller version came later on, but I like these.”
“They have their chips, yes, but this just makes them nicer. It's age. They've been around and are used every day. Everything has a little bit of imperfection. You can spend your whole life bothering about that, but there should be some imperfection in life. Fix it? Then something else needs fixing. It just moves. Leave it, be proud.”
“I don't have a Billy in the house now. But there have been! Kallax? I have owned many. Brilliant piece. Really good for vinyl, because that's the time they come from. I listen to a lot of vinyl.”
