IKEA introduces KOMPISHÄNG — a new collection for life in transit

For a growing generation of young adults, moving is no longer a one-off life event but a repeating rhythm. Each new season may bring a new apartment, neighborhood or city, shaped by rental housing, career mobility and urban living. Developed around this reality, KOMPISHÄNG is made from solid pine, powder‑coated steel and durable canvas, with items designed to be packed, carried and set up again, performing just as well in a shared flat as in a studio apartment or first long‑term home — ready to turn any space into a home, wherever life takes you next.

When change is the only constant

The collection was shaped not in a design studio, but through visits to people’s homes. IKEA spent time with young adults aged 20–28 living in central London, to understand how they actually lived. Across these visits, the same patterns emerged: improvised storage, well‑worn moving boxes repurposed as furniture, and a small number of carefully chosen objects carried from one rental to the next.

Those visits reflected a shared way of thinking. Every purchase was weighed against the next move — it had to be easy to carry, last longer than one home, and look good in a small space. These were not isolated opinions, but common priorities that became the design mandate for KOMPISHÄNG.

“Even if you move often, you don’t want your home to feel temporary. We saw how carefully people chose the things they carried with them from place to place, and that insight shaped the collection. We wanted the collection to be portable but still have a permanent look, people should feel settled and considered,” says Dora Ding, Product Developer at IKEA of Sweden.

Designed by the generation it serves

To make sure the collection would reflect reality, the design team made an early decision: the people creating it should be the people it was created for. Through IKEA’s twice-yearly internship program for design graduates in Älmhult, two recent industrial design graduates — both in their mid-twenties — were embedded in the project from the very first workshop in London, before a single sketch had been drawn.

They were not observers but the target audience, and they knew it. Over a five-month internship, they ideated, tested, and proposed six of the products. Their most significant early intervention was pushing back against a more colorful direction, arguing that in small spaces, a calmer visual language — natural pine, soft beige, measured accents of red and green — creates room rather than noise. That restraint became one of the defining qualities.

“We absorbed inputs like this directly into the design process and set out to create something that feels like it belongs in your home, not pieces that remind you you’re about to leave. Balancing permanence and portability became a guiding principle across the entire collection,” says Ina Tidbeck Sjöblom, Range Leader at IKEA of Sweden.

Carry, fold, transform

Portability for this collection is a starting condition, not an afterthought. The solid pine desk requires no tools and no assembly time: 2 pulls and 2 clicks, and it stands. A built-in handle under the tabletop means it can be carried from one room — or one apartment — to the next without putting anything down first.

When not needed as extra seating, the two KOMPISHÄNG stools fit together like a puzzle, forming a compact surface for displaying items such as plants or books. And the hanging wardrobe organizer converts into a carry bag with a single zip — clothes arrive at the next place already sorted, no unpacking required.

Making a rental feel like home

Portability matters. But so does belonging. A persistent frustration of rental living is the inability to put things on walls — no nails, no marks, no trace. The solid pine mirror frames have slots cut directly into them, creating space for photographs, ticket stubs, and mementoes. No brackets, no damage — just a frame that holds a little of who you are, wherever it ends up.

The two door hangers — one in washable canvas, one in pine with 12 hooks — attach using straps instead of screws, turning the back of any door into useful storage. The triangular back cushion has a handle and a foldable top panel, so it can soften a bare wall, convert a bed into a reading nook, or simply follow you from room to room. Even the jute plant pot was designed around a specific, often overlooked challenge: how to move a beloved plant safely and neatly. A built-in cover rolls out to protect it in transit; large handles mean no extra packaging is needed.

This approach is reflected across the collection. “We wanted to create a collection that could be moved with your body alone. Without needing a car,” says designer Wiebke Braasch. “Moving plants was a bigger problem than I ever imagined, and it was fun to come up with a new solution that makes it easier to both carry and protect them while moving.”

The red metal bookend completes the picture. For those without a bookshelf — which, in rentals, is most people — it keeps a book collection portable, upright, and presentable in each new home.

KOMPISHÄNG will be available exclusively in IKEA U.S. stores from July 31 through August 14, ahead of its online release on August 15.

About IKEA

At IKEA, the vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering well-designed, functional and affordable, high-quality home furnishing, produced with care for people and the environment. Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 414 IKEA stores in 32 countries – including 60 retail locations in the U.S.