How to upgrade Ikea furniture: say no to cookie-cutter cabinets and sofas


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A common problem that house-proud but budget-conscious shoppers have is that buying from the same crop of stores can make a space look a bit like a cookie-cutter showroom.

This has spawned a movement for upgrading furniture, and some clever businesses that offer customisable options for simple store-bought pieces, most notably those from Swedish furniture company Ikea, transforming them into completely new and one-off creations.

Condition your cabinets with Fronteriors

Launched in 2019, Fronteriors is an online interior design business based in Dubai that was co-founded by Linda Dekkers and Kath Hawkes, from the Netherlands and South Africa, respectively. The brand offers a selection of doors, tops and sides that can be overlaid on Ikea cabinets to make them look more stylish, even expensive.

Fronteriors specialises in Besta, Billy, Pax and Metod units with some leg options and a handle design as add-ons, and its website also offers tips on how to install yourself, although UAE residents can elect to have a team over to upgrade their units.

An upgraded Ikea cabinet by Fronteriors.
An upgraded Ikea cabinet by Fronteriors.

Being purely online offers flexibility to both the consumer and the business, which is accessible 24/7 for anyone to shop.

The duo say the pandemic helped their business in two ways. “People started paying more attention to their home to create a space that they actually liked to spend time in,” says Hawkes.

Also, with digital being anyone's only option during stay-at-home orders in 2020, Fronteriors flourished and was able to open an office space in Dubai where Dekkers and Hawkes now host open house days.

“Our clients can visit us, see and touch the products and talk about the possibilities. We love the human aspect of the business. It gives us a lot of energy.”

Being a worldwide company is next on the pair's agenda, as they launch shipping options to the Gulf this year. An Instagram following of 29,000 means there is a much wider reach than only the UAE that they are keen to go after.

“Most of our followers are from outside the UAE … the US, UK, France. Being able to ship our products to those parts of the world would be fantastic and a way to really expand our business. But first things first: getting our doors on all those Ikea frames in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar.”

Get a handle on things with Prettypegs

Prettypegs has a wide range of handles for cabinets, cupboards and doors.
Prettypegs has a wide range of handles for cabinets, cupboards and doors.

For more leg and handle options, look to Prettypegs, which specialises in providing replacement legs in a range of heights and styles for all Ikea units, as well as a great selection of handles and a few door styles.

Founded in 2012 in Sweden by Jana Cagin and Mikael Soderblom after an interesting trip to Ikea where they decided that a particular sofa was nice, but the legs were awful, Prettypegs was created.

The company ships worldwide, and what also makes it flexible is that you can buy legs to fit furniture from any brand, not just Ikea, and so upcycle your furniture – from sofas and dining tables to consoles and cabinets – for a new look-feel.

Style up your sofa with Comfort Works

Comfort Works can provide slipcovers for Ikea, Pottery Barn and Muji sofas and armchairs.
Comfort Works can provide slipcovers for Ikea, Pottery Barn and Muji sofas and armchairs.

Another pair who found an old Ikea sofa they had inherited rather “ugly” is Rachel Yeng and Henry Chandra, who together created Comfort Works in 2008 “to fix this sofa ‘situation’ by making a slipcover for it with the help of a couple of YouTube tutorials and a second-hand sewing machine," the pair explain. "Let’s just say it took a handful of tries to get it right, but we got there eventually.”

The company they went on to launch offers the chance to create an individual design in different fabrics for all Ikea sofas and armchairs, all custom-made and shipped worldwide. The offering is expanding to also include Pottery Barn and Muji, plus made-to-measure covers for other sofas, and Comfort Works is helping create homes that reflect its occupants, giving customers the chance to express themselves to the fullest, with everything from custom linen to bright orange covers.

The duo’s mission is to not only make sofas look good, but also functional, by creating pockets for tablets, phones and more.

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Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel 

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Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors

Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion

The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".

The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.

He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.

"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.

As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.

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if you go

The flights

Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.

The hotel

Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850

 Events and tours

There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com

For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art. 

More information

For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com

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