mobile Upwardly
The Magazine of Mobile, Manufactured and Modular Home Living
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Prefabricating the modern home
Enabling the disabled • the power of paint • after the fire LOG CABIN ESCAPES • ikea = idea! • in the garden & more
INTERIORS
So Many
Possibilities IKEA = IDEA!
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isclosure: I love IKEA! There’s instant gratification in picking up my furniture at checkout— no waiting weeks for delivery. It’s fun the way their stuff can be put together by pretty much anyone, especially with some popcorn and a glass of wine…and I love that there are so many color and texture variations. With every visit to one of their stores, I find some new way of combining pieces that’s functional and looks cool, too. 2
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Now, you might ask….what is the relationship between IKEA and mobile/modular housing? Well, IKEA’s philosophy of Småland, of “doing more with less, challenging convention, being careful with money and not letting a single thing go to waste” pretty much sums up mobile/modular housing— there’s a place for everything (and sometimes a thing for every place!). Their shelving, cabinets and closets are interconnecting to fit together
in uncountable configurations, so well-suited to fit into the limited or odd-shaped spaces available in m/m housing. Plus, there are the storage systems! Racks and trays and containers that fit drawers, shelves, and closets….my, oh, my! Nicoletta Schaeffer, Senior Interior Designer for the IKEA Costa Mesa store, gave us a private tour of a modular home she fully furnished with IKEA products. continued
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Photos courtesy IKEA
By Troy Palmer-Hughes
The living room of the “Family” is a study in contrasts (top), while the “Girls” living room (opposite) enjoys funky and casual comfort.
The master bedroom (left) and dining area of the “Family” home. w w w.u m h m a g . c o m
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INTERIORS
continued
The 5 Star Homes at IKEA Costa Mesa, CA.
The kitchen in the “Family” home is solidly contemporary.
This “Girls” bedroom is understated yet comfortable. 4
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To start a design, she creates a set of characters who live in each space. The home we visited is furnished for an Orange County family: father, mother and ‘tween son. (A second home was designed around a group of college-aged “girls” and will be featured on our website.) Her design is stylish and sophisticated, yet affordable, emphasizing family connection with an open plan living/ kitchen/dining space. Everything is warm and friendly in parchments, browns and grays. Entertainment center clutter hides behind spring-latched, knob-less doors of a wall of Bestå cabinets, while a table height unit of the same style houses casual servingware; you can see the family offering drinks and snacks while their guests lounge on the comfy sofas. The kitchen is great looking—plenty of counter space and a central island with seating. IKEA has expanded to provide appliances, counter tops, and faucets, so everything we see is available using their “here’s the list with a price for every single piece” process. Putting a kitchen like this together may be more work than some homeowners want to tackle, so you can also order installation services. Nicoletta tells us that installation work is just like in-store ordering—everything broken out and priced separately, so it is very transparent and easy to understand exactly what you are paying for. You can go to IKEA’s site to design what you want (Nicoletta says it is easy to use), then save your file and access your design in the store to order items. And yes, there’s assistance in-store for those people who don’t love the computer. It’s not just furniture—there’s stemware, carafes, even the sweetest small chafing dishes with matching, heat-proof holders, all available at IKEA. One very cool feature in all the drawers and cabinets is a slim, battery-powered light with a sensor, so the light comes on for 15 seconds when you open the door or drawer, then goes off 5 seconds after you close it. Just peel and stick to mount and it’s not expensive! (This is something I must get for my Mom’s mobile home!) Self-closing drawers (with those interior lights) are filled with perfectlyfitted dividers, holding a seemingly infinite number of different sizes and shapes of containers. With their small size and nesting storage capability to fit more stuff into less space, they’re so great for our mobile/ w w w .umhm ag .c om
IKEA Goes 5 Star
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hen IKEA wanted to demonstrate how their wares can enhance any facet of our homes, they didn’t just think outside the box—they determined that they needed to build a bigger box. In this case, full modular homes provided by 5 Star Homes of Stanton, CA. These same homes were set up on display at the Orange County Fairgrounds. It’s a testament to the efficiency of the modular housing construction process that the houses could be disassembled, moved and set up again, this time at IKEA’s Costa Mesa location. Space, power outlets everywhere, lots of windows, especially letting natural light into the kitchen from above the cabinets, and great vaulted ceilings—these are some of the things that most struck us about the homes. These modulars are definitely not my momma’s mobile home. They look like traditional “stickbuilt” housing on solid foundations; the 5 Star gentlemen tell us that they can also be installed on raised foundations. The level of customization that is possible and economically feasible is one of the attractive aspects of modular housing. In the first home we visited, the living and dining areas are separated by a free standing fireplace with the firebox open on both sides. One of the things that makes the master bedroom so serene is the lack of the distraction of a closet. Instead of the traditional closet doors in the bedroom, the house builders customized the design so the closet opens into the adjoining master bath, creating a spa-like personal world with His and Her spaces, a huge tub and shower. w w w.u m h m a g . c o m
The “Girls” entertainment area is awash in hip patterns and colors
modular (m/m) housing. Good looks plus no counter top clutter equals beauty on the outside and brains on the inside. Speaking of beauty, every surface not dedicated to storage is enhanced with fashionable art nice enough to easily hold its own next to original pieces. It’s all very affordable, so one can be surrounded by lovely things, and change your style as children or tastes mature. IKEA gets new collections 4-6 times a year so there is plenty of variety. In the family office, the same Bestå style has a completely different look as it covers one wall from floor to ceiling—including a rolling ladder for us shorties. No doors swing out into the room to bump your head on; instead they all slide—great for smaller m/m spaces. The Galant desks are modular, also, with variations of legs and under-cabinets. We’re amazed to find out the room is only 8’x10’, as there’s tons of work space. Dark blue paint, great for hiding dirty handprints, and tons of hooks in the hopes he will not dump his stuff on the floor, are key elements of the ‘tween’s room. The heavy, thick style of his Pax wardrobe system is very trendy, loaded with pull-out wire baskets and magazine and DVD holders; plus more boxes fit under the shelves to stuff stuff into. Graphic styling and hanging storage combine in a mosaic of mirror squares, with hooks inbetween each. There’s a portable laptop table, cute aluminum cabinets that slide out from underneath for
use as additional seating, and zippy curved track lighting. The master bedroom is spacious and airy, with light filtering through the window treatments. It is a sophisticated, private space for the couple, filled with pillows and art in complementary patterns and colors. A Billy bookcase in the corner houses the family’s books. We are amazed to learn that IKEA is about to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Billy; this versatile unit comes in different widths so it can fit almost any space. The spa-like bath has His and Her spaces (hers is larger, of course!). Nicoletta indicates that the bathroom fixtures are the same as in the kitchen, providing a harmonious look and tons more storage than one usually finds in a bathroom. The attached closet is filled with seemingly unending drawers; very clever pull-out hanger rods would be super in MH narrow closets. For all those little, loose items that fill our life, there’s a thin drawer lined with shallow recesses and a fuzzy texture surface so things don’t slide around. Spot lighting highlights the corners so you can find everything; there’s even a full size mirror and art inside—how often to you find art in a closet? We came away from our visit with so many good ideas! Troy Palmer-Hughes works out of a converted 1950’s-era mobile built into the side of her canyon home in Box Canyon (near Simi Valley). In addition to contributing to UM, she and her husband produce film and do other assorted odds and ends. Upw a rdly
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