{ Posts Tagged ‘bookshelf’ }

ikea’s billy bookcase turns 30

One of IKEA’s staple storage collections hits a milestone this year… Billy — the bestselling bookcase in the WORLD — is turning 30!

To celebrate the anniversary, IKEA’s pulling out all the stops, including the launch of a limited-edition Billy series called Billy Jader.

billyjader2 ikeas billy bookcase turns 30

Billy Jader’s got a playful, graffiti-inspired feel, with what looks like Sharpie-marker scrawlings lining the interior. Look a bit closer and you’ll notice that designer Annika Bryngelson’s actually used quotations from Shakespeare’s love sonnets in the script… Cute!

Here’s the full assortment of colourways available in the new series, which will be in stores for a limited time only. Those colourful little “B” bookends (which I’m rather partial to, naturally) are also part of the Billy anniversary release.

billyjader1 ikeas billy bookcase turns 30

But have you ever wondered who was behind this iconic design?

Oddly enough, his name isn’t “Billy”.

billyguy ikeas billy bookcase turns 30Gillis Lundgren designed Billy in 1979, but had actually joined IKEA as the fourth employee (Wild! IKEA now has more than 128,000 employees overall…) back in 1953. What’s more, he doesn’t even necessarily see Billy as his masterpiece. Instead, he considers the Tore drawer unit (below) he designed in 1958 as the design he’s most proud of. So interesting!

tore ikeas billy bookcase turns 30Lundgren is also the man who came up with the idea of the flat pack, which will very likely be his most enduring legacy.

Fast facts:

* 41,000,000 – Number of Billy bookcases manufactured since 1979

* 15 – Number of Billy bookcase manufactured each minute at IKEA’s Gyllensvaan furniture factory

* Lundgren’s design philosophy: “At the end of the day, I designed for the many people,” he says. “I want to make solutions for everyday life, based on people’s needs. All my products are simple, practical and timeless. They should be useful no matter how old you are, or what your life situation is.”

Billy anniversary series, IKEA, 866-866-4532

crafty kraft jackets

hardyboys crafty kraft jacketsA while back, I was flipping through Island Life – a totally inspirational book by the talented and gorgeous designer, India Hicks (as an aside, her new body and bath collection for Crabtree & Evelyn is STUNNING), and one of her simple and summery little projects really resonated with me. To bring order to a chaotic bookshelf, she’d wrapped a bunch of her hardcover books with cut manila paper dustjackets. (You can use kraft paper in a pinch.) The result? A breezy and beachy – yet cohesive – display. Now, anyone who knows me is aware of my soft spot for The Hardy Boys, and I realized that my collection of (sadly) dust-jacket-less (and therefore less valuable) original impressions with their beige linen spines already have this comfy, timeworn yet unified look, so up on the bookshelf they went. The result? My own little slice of Island Life!