Friends, this month is A Tiny Apt.’s 4-year anniversary—ack! crazy!—and I am so grateful for the 🔥 community each of you has helped create here. If you’ve been considering an upgrade, we’re offering a limited promo as a THANK YOU. Today through February 17, an annual subscription to A Tiny Apt. ($60 value) is $50 ✨. We’ve got lots coming for paid members, too, including Part 2 of our Low-Lift Design Ideas to Try, our first PDF guide to NYC Vintage + Thrifting (!!), a new built-in bench in our straw-panel Cabin, an essay tracing my early career in magazines, and more. Paid subscribers always get full access to our ATA Archive, home to 250+ features, including our most popular dispatches like My Debt Story, 5 Things I Always Buy Secondhand, and My Life In 4 NYC Apartments. And, when the refresh of our logo is ready, we’ll have some fresh ATA merch to share, too.
Most of all, thank you for believing in my version of home. For challenging the conventions of space and change w/me and breaking through to EVERYTHING that’s possible as a result. For sharing in ALL the beautiful/collectible/mad-wonderful thrifted things that remind us of what we love + who we are, despite square footage or anything else. It’s a dream to make this newsletter for you. ❤️
One of the biggest reasons I look forward to writing this bi-annual IKEA story is that this neighborhood shopping expedition always turns into a mini inspiration vacation. Following the arrows along the floor to unexpected color combinations, strange sculptural shapes/lines, and a fresh batch of prints that always set me off on a new adventure of learning and thinking about design in a more resourceful way. Even though I will always encourage you to visit your local thrift or hunt for something secondhand before you buy it new, heading to your local IKEA (during off hours, please!) is almost always a major mood lifter—even if you buy nothing at all.
Going back to IKEA’s founding principle—to make great modern Scandinavian-inspired design available/accessible to everyone—is even better when the things we do buy aren’t just novelty but essential tools that get better with age (+ also why the cult of vintage IKEA is such a consistently HOT hunting space, how giving thought to what you buy now can accrue real value in the future).
Limited-edition blue-trimmed baskets, imagining ALL the things we can do w/them for years to come.
Before I set out on this season’s IKEA trip, I messaged Merie Subryan ⬆️, a Brooklyn-based interiors stylist/creative consultant who I first met when she came to one of my summertime stoop sales 😍. Merie has her own interiors workshop/studio as well as the wonderful newsletter here called Section Plane devoted to spaces, stories, and objects she loves. She’s also a fellow smaller-space dweller, sharing her 850-square-foot loft in Fort Greene with her husband and two children Phoenix and Cy and their maltipoo, Charlie. I really appreciate Merie’s eye, so on a chill Thursday, we met up at Brooklyn’s Red Hook outpost to shop IKEA together…and, better still, learn from each other’s respective IKEA strategies. Here’s a quick conversation I had with her before we get into everything we found together…it’s inspiring advice not just for shopping IKEA but for going out in search of anything you really want to enjoy and make great use of for a long time to come. 😍
ATA: How often do you shop at IKEA? What’s your routine like?
Merie: “A few times a year, usually with a specific purpose. Some visits are purely practical, like pots + pans or towels. Other times, I’m there for their design collaborations. I’m not especially trend-driven, so I move through the store with a degree of skepticism, choosing items that are oriented toward longevity rather than novelty.”
ATA: What’s the draw for you in your IKEA preferences? Utility, collecting, play?Merie: “Utility is where I start. I’m probably not especially ‘fun’ about interiors in the way people expect. Even when my home reads as playful because I love color, it’s built on pragmatism. Most things have a job. When you really look, there isn’t much that doesn’t earn its place. Sustainability, for me, is about adaptability over time, which is why IKEA consistently appeals to me as a utilitarian resource.”
“Sustainability, for me, is about adaptability over time, which is why IKEA consistently appeals to me as a utilitarian resource.”
ATA: What are some of your favorite things you’ve ever bought from IKEA?
Merie: “One of my all-time favorite purchases is the two-toned storage stool ⬇️ from Dutch design studio Raw Color’s collaboration with IKEA, Tesammans. Despite its saturation, the stool feels surprisingly light. The fluted surface breaks up its mass, while the paler secondary tone provides visual relief, lifting the object rather than weighing it down. It’s a reminder that color, when used with discipline, can create a greater sense of space than neutrality, and often something more beautiful, too.
The stool has moved around our home many times. It began in the living room, then shifted to my desk area, and now lives in my daughter’s room where it holds her most precious objects while doubling as a side table. It’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do, which for me is the real measure of a good IKEA piece.”
ATA: Do you search for vintage IKEA? If so, why and what have you found?
Merie: “I do. Vintage IKEA feels genuinely top-tier to me, especially the chrome pieces from its Space Age moment. I haven’t managed to acquire any vintage IKEA in the U.S., mostly because shipping is so prohibitive, but I love encountering it in other people’s homes. The 1982 IKEA bed by Knut Hagberg in HEM Art Director Cristina Poelk’s home often comes to mind. Even though it postdates IKEA’s Space Age peak, it carries the same spirit. That earlier period, roughly from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s, was shaped by optimism and experimentation, and by the belief that even ordinary objects could feel a little futuristic, even radical.”
Photo by Erik Lefvander for Architectural Digest.
And now, here’s everything Merie and I found and loved at IKEA recently, as well as a few of our selects from the online shop, too (our local chapters never have ALL the good stuff)…let’s get into it.! 🇸🇪
Off the bat, two sofas for small spaces we LOVED.
If I was still living in my teeny UES studio, I would 100% buy this wonderful Skönabäck sleeper sofa (trust me, so much nicer-looking IRL than it is online). The muted gold/green is lovely in person, and for under $500 this compact model offers so much versatility for flexible living + small spaces alike (ie: daybed reading, sleepovers, kids’ room, etc.).
Not to mention it has hidden storage to keep your bedding tucked away…