The IKEA pieces interior designers come back to again and again

Deputy decoration editor Ruth Sleightholme tackled decorating on a budget in House & Garden’s June 2015 issue. “I used one or two things from Ikea in every shot,” Ruth says. “Their cheap, simple designs lend themselves brilliantly to adaptation. Here, I took the great flatweave IKEA rugs (‘Lappljung’, a mere £20), shoved a bit of wadding in it and turned it in to a bench cushion. The table, (‘Grebbestad’, £150), chair (‘Ivar’, £15) and bench (‘Bjursta’, £70) are all from there too.”

The sofas

IKEA sofas pop up with some regularity in the apartments we feature, unsurprisingly especially those with a Scandinavian inflection. In the living room of Alfred Bransen’s Hackney flat with quite a Danish sensibility (above), a sofa from IKEA (the Söderhamn model, if we’re not mistaken) mixes with a vintage coffee table and lots of colourful soft furnishings. The cushions are a mix of Hay and The Apartment DK.

Nathalie Krag

This medieval tower in Italy (above) was originally restored by the celebrated architect Bruno Sacchi in the 1970s, but the project had fallen into disrepair following his death. His wife Jane and their children recently resuscitated the original decor. In the sitting room, the sofas are from – wait for it… IKEA, and they work beautifully with the white Travertine shelves on either side, which hold Bruno’s collection of African figurines, sculptures and art books.