A little love from IKEA

Hej!
Finally, IKEA has given me a nod. Though a little, sideway tilt of the head it makes me all giddy inside. No, I am not flying to Sweden (yet), just an interview on IKEA Hackers for their blog, Livet hemma. It will have to do for now, till I shake Ingvar Kamprad’s hand. You can read the interview here. It’s in Swedish. (Google English translation here).

Equally, I was curious about Livet hemma and it being written in Swedish didn’t stop me. Yes, pictures-thousand-words thing rings true for this site – lovely, lovely room sets and beautiful shots you’d come to expect from IKEA. It carries updates, has a cool forum where members can show off their IKEA and even a hacks contest (this decoupaged shoe cabinet, black and white lacy bekvam, light plate and Billy cityscape are my favourites). Wanting to find out more, I shot them a series of questions.

How and when did Livet hemma start?
The Livet hemma (Life at home) blog started in late august 2010 by IKEA sweden. We started the blog because we had so many ideas and lots of inspiration to share. We also needed a forum for our IKEA customers to share ideas and solutions from their own homes and also to create a place where you can to be in close contact with IKEA. It’s really interesting to see the IKEA products in use in real life situations.

Who started it and runs it?
The Livet hemma blog was started by IKEA Sweden. It’s me Anna Pettersson and Tina Björeman from IKEA Sweden who runs it. We also have a great production team that support us.

What is the goal or aim of this blog?
The aim of the blog is to share inspiration for the everyday life at home. And also to create a creative forum for all kinds of people with interests in life at home and smart interior solutions. In Sweden there’s a great interest in home decoration and we hope Livet hemma will be a good place to share, just like IKEA Hackers.

What is the inspiration behind this blog?
The inspiration comes from IKEA, the interior design world around us and the many people who contribute with exciting home decoration ideas. And of course we’re inspired by blogs like IKEA Hackers and Swedish Trendenser for instance. We also get lots of inspiration from our own social media channels like the IKEA Sverige page on Facebook. Here we noticed the great interest in IKEA and our products.

Do you intend to have it in other languages?
Yes, we would love to have Livet hemma in other languages. We’ve noticed that people from all over the world are interested in the features published here.

How many readers do you have?
Our readership is slowly but surely growing. Today we have about 9,000 registered members who participate in the ongoing making of the blog.

What’s happening now over at Livet hemma?
At the moment there’s a lot of nice kitchens in the forum. It’s fantastic to see the real thing.

Visit Livet hemma (in Swedish). Click this link for a Google translation to English.