The millennial trend became so perfect-looking, so boring that every photo on Instagram looked the same. Now there’s playfulness without losing functionality or simplicity.
First, an explanation. “Millennial beige” does not refer only to the color beige. It could be gray or white or any color on the neutral palette and inspired by Scandinavian or Japanese minimalism. It’s super styled for Instagram, it’s black metal accents and dramatic lighting, open and uncluttered layout, and always ready for a design spread.
Don’t get me wrong. I love uncluttered interiors. My own house is open layout, just above minimalist and under the middle ground. I haven’t added any new furniture in the living and dining rooms since 2010 for fear that my millennial architect would come over in the middle of the night and beat me with it. That tells you the amount of restraint I’ve exercised all these years (and the quality of pieces my designer friends made me buy), so I understand fans of millennial beige.
Except that millennial beige became so perfect-looking, so boring that every photo on Instagram looked the same. Light beige sofa with dark beige throw pillows against a medium beige wall. And for mind-boggling and impractical reason, they were covering books with plain paper. Who could tell which book was which? Sure, there was texture sometimes, maybe a boucle here or there, but it was also beige. There was no oomph, no character.
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This was the dominant trend from the mid-2010s to the early 2020s, until people thought, “God, am I this boring?” (Yes, you were!) Then more color came in, people started putting warmer and personalized accessories. No one cared that family frames crowded the sideboard or that there was a very orange throw pillow on the sofa or that the table shaped more like a blob than a perfect sphere.
Now there’s playfulness once again. There’s color and emotional connection to pieces beyond just looking good. IKEA had this mindset down to a science decades ago when they began studying the correlation between playful design and practical living. The result was called PS Collection, which they debuted at the Milan Furniture Fair, “the very epicenter of elitist design,” in 1995. At the same time, they launched their Democratic Design movement, “an approach that intensified our task to fill a low price with as much form, function, quality and sustainability as possible.” according to the website.
Considered its “experimental playground” for the past 31 years, IKEA has made nine PS Collections since 1995, each one exploring the future of Scandinavian design and producing some of IKEA’s most loved and enduring pieces.
Any time you put “experimental” and “playground” in one sentence, you’re bound to have interesting designs. The 10th edition of PS collection centers on functional, simple designs with an element of playfulness. The common ground among the collections is their Scandinavian roots of simplicity, “where taking away elements makes products even more exciting.”
The new collection made its Philippine debut earlier this month at the home of Swedish Ambassador to the Philippines Anna Ferry, whose home in Makati became the stage for the pieces.
In this post-millennial beige era, think an inflatable chair in bright green with chrome framing by Mikael Axelsson who took inspiration from a 1990s design (I love it, but it’s not a fit for my house); a red table clock that looks like a periscope by Marta Krupinska (this one is so much fun); a chair that seems like a plywood puzzle that you solved (designed by Ellen Hallström to highlight the best qualities of plywood); handblown vases that look like they have ears (designed by Maria Vinka) ; and a fabric that looks like a watercolor painting.
Or as IKEA puts it, “It’s a collection that snaps, folds, clicks, blooms, peeks, hides, flaps, climbs, rolls, snoozes, celebrates, blows, sends, tags along, colors, hangs, weaves, bends, reverses, crisscrosses, glows, hears, rocks, moves, gazes, collects, shows off.”
The pieces are not only for homes with small children, they are for anyone with a sense of fun and good design with any kind of budget. As Scandinavian design has taught us, less is more, but it doesn’t have to be boring.
The PS Collection is available at IKEA in Mall of Asia and IKEA online.
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