Style & Decor Blog

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.

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.

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

Oddly enough, his name isn’t “Billy”.

Gillis 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!

Lundgren 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