IKEA is Finally Set to Launch Their Own Furniture Hacking Ecosystem

From converting a cheap wood dining room table into the ultimate productivity station to repurposing lamp components into clever light fixtures, there are very few things that cannot be done with IKEA’s expansive product line and a creative mind. Despite a growing community of IKEA Hackers, however, the company has never formally encouraged these hacks—as a matter of fact, they even sent a cease and desist letter to one of the more popular IKEA hacking community sites.

Well, all that’s about to change now.

With the launch of their Delaktig (Swedish for “being part of something”) open platform designed through a collaboration with designer Tom Dixon, the company is finally embracing the hackability of their products with their own system designed to do just that.

While the concept was first revealed last year, it was unclear when it would go on sale, or even if the Swedish furniture giant was taking the concept seriously. Well, they are—and the first phase of the hackable flat-pack product range is scheduled to go on sale early 2018 and will be priced between $399 and $899). And it starts with an aluminum frame system that future IKEA furniture products will be compatible with.

According to the company, they want to create furniture that is multi-purpose and that suits cramped urban living, where people might want to re-arrange the layout of their homes. After all, with so many successful Kickstarted products and growing interest in hackable home goods, didn’t it just make sense?

While it’ll be interesting to see how consumers interpret the system, there’s no denying that in a world of increasingly open platforms, late is better than never.

Find out more about the project, which was done in part through a collab with Royal College of Art students, over at IKEA.