March 2019 - Comfort Works Blog & Sofa Resources

These smart IKEA essentials will save you time and your sanity

Posted on March 16, 2019April 29, 2025 by Jan Johan

With just about every major tech and hardware company trying to dominate the smart home market in 2019, IKEA seems to be put in a rather unique position when it comes to tackling smart homes.

For a company known for selling ready-to-assemble home furniture instead of electrical home appliance, IKEA’s new line of smart home products seems to dwell within the realm of simplicity rather than futuristic.

Here’s a list of our favourite IKEA smart home products that will save you time and your sanity.

TRADFRI Smart Lights

One of IKEA’s most featured products from their smart home collection is the TRADFRI IKEA smart lights.

These wireless LED lights (with an A+ energy rating score) can be controlled via wireless remote and smartphone app to adjust its intensity and brightness — giving you full control over the visual atmosphere of your environment.

The TRADFRI light kits come with a variety of different accessories to help you transform your home into a well lit, energy saving, and wireless controlled smart home.

The TRADFRI series comes with motion sensors, wireless dimmers, and gateway devices that let you configure your lights individually or within groups within your home.

The IKEA smart LED light system is compatible with most smart home hubs like the Google Home, and Amazon Alexa for a more wholesome smart home experience.

FLOALT Smart Light Panel

In addition to the TRADFRI LED lightbulbs, the FLOALT collection from IKEA’s line of smart home products take smart lighting to a whole new level with these FLOALT smart LED light panel.

They can be mounted on walls, on furniture, and even on ceilings for some overhead lighting. Making it perfect for areas at home that lack natural light.

These light panels also come with a wireless remote and can work with the TRADFRI app which is capable of controlling up to 10 other smart lights in your house — giving you universal command over the lighting at home.

The days of walking over to each light switch just to turn them off are finally over.

These light panels come in 2 shapes. The first being a square, and the other being a rectangle as seen above.

FYRTUR Smart Shades

One of IKEA’s newest products to join its smart home line-up this year is the FYRTUR smart shades. The FYRTUR is a battery operated black-out roller blind that can be controlled via a remote.

Just like other IKEA smart home products, the FYRTUR can work in tandem with other smart devices through the TRADFRI app for a seamless experience.

Starting at US$185, the IKEA FYRTUR sells at almost half the price of other smart home curtains on the market.

The upside to getting a FYRTUR smart blind is that it can work with IKEA’s existing VIDGA curtain rails that many people already have in their homes.

So with just a simple swap, people with the existing Vidga rails can easily turn their manually-powered curtain blinds into an automated smart blind system.

ENEBY Wireless Speaker

Wireless Bluetooth speakers have taken the world by storm within the last couple of years. They’re easy to set up and provide an exceptional wireless listening experience without the need to stay plugged into the device.

The ENEBY wireless speaker looks to be IKEA’s iteration on what a smart speaker should be. Its humbling design, easy-to-use control knob, plus its ability to deliver crisp sounds makes IKEA a serious contender within the speaker scene.

Just this year, IKEA announced a collaboration with SONOS (a company widely known for its smart speakers) for a new speaker called the Symfonisk.

Though not much has been revealed other than it’s design and product name, more details about this collaboration are expected to be announced within the coming months.

SIGNUM Cable Organiser

Not every problem needs a high-tech solution to solve it.

Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones, and that’s exactly what the SIGNUM cable organisers by IKEA offer when it comes to keeping your home gadgets tidy.

The SIGNUM, which comprises a simple cable trunk that’s installed under your desk, prevents your cables from getting tangled up and helps keep your space neat and organized.

LORBY & NORDMARKE USB Chargers

Although things are slowly moving into the realm of wireless chargers and Bluetooth wireless connections, IKEA still hasn’t forgotten about those who are still bound to USB charging.

Instead of simply making a power outlet with a USB port, the LORBY and NORDMARKE USB chargers both conveniently include 3 USB ports, all of which are tucked into a neat little dock that you can either place on the surface of your table or clip to the side of it.

ROMMA Cable Management Box

The ROMMA cable management box has a similar function to the SIGNUM, but unlike the latter, which attaches to the bottom of your desk, the SIGNUM rests on the surface and keeps all the cables contained within it.

The ROMMA cable management box is perfect for those who like to keep their cables hidden but close by. As the saying goes: out of sight, out of mind.

RIGGAD LED Lamp With Wireless Charging

The RIGGAD LED table lamp with built-in wireless charging combines the convenience of a portable lamp and wireless charger.

The simple yet elegant design of the RIGGAD is certainly a must-have from the IKEA smart home series, which is perfect for saving you precious at-home time.

Looking for a wireless charger that you can take with you? IKEA does in fact sell these as stand-alone products.

Some of them are built to be used alongside existing IKEA products like the ROMMA cable management box, while others fit into desk grommets (those holes that typically let you run wires through your desk) for organised charging.

Hacking Your IKEA To Make It Smarter

Some die-hard IKEA hackers have gone as far as to drill holes into their furniture just to make space for one of these wireless chargers.

As IKEA lovers and hackers ourselves, we decided to take a ‘softer’ (i.e no drilling required!) turn by adding built-in USB and wireless chargers into our sofa slipcovers.

Curious about what they look like, how they work and how you can get your hands on them? Click on the button below to find out:

GO WIRELESS

The beginner’s guide to setting up a smart home

Posted on March 9, 2019April 29, 2025 by Jan Johan

Everyone knows what a smartphone is, but a smart home?

To put it simply, a smart home is a one that gives you the ability to control a wide variety of electrical appliances such as your lights, AC, entertainment system, and even home security system, all from the convenience of your smartphone (or sometimes even with just your voice).

With all kinds of gizmos and gadgets out there that can help make your home “smarter”, it can certainly get confusing and intimidating when you’re just starting out and exploring your options.

So, to help you navigate the confusing but exciting world of smart homes and smart devices, we decided to create a quick guide and go over some basic smart home devices that can help you go wireless at home.

Start with a smart hub.

Assuming that you already have a WiFi network at home, the first step towards making your home “smarter” is to start by setting up a smart home control hub.

A control hub is essential for any kind of smart home setup. You can think of it as a brain for your home.

Smart hubs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some look like speakers, and others look like small tablet devices, while some can even look like little squares without much of a display.

Popular smart hub devices like the Google Home Hub, Amazon Alexa, and the Samsung Smart Things Hub are devices that come with a built-in voice activation feature, which means that you can verbally give your instructions to these devices to complete various tasks.

They should ideally be placed in an area of your home that has a strong WiFi signal and can easily connect to other smart devices at home.

Once you’ve got your smart hub set up, you can go ahead and use it to ‘speak’ to certain appliances in your home. Below are the most commonly- used, at-home smart or wireless systems.

The entertainment system.

An entertainment system is probably the go-to for most people when they want to start expanding into new smart home systems.

Being able to control things like your TV and your sound system with the command of your voice or smartphone is still a relatively new experience for most people.

If talking to inanimate objects isn’t your thing, it may be helpful to know that most TVs and speakers that have been released in the last couple of years have built-in capabilities that let them connect to your WiFi network, allowing them to perform the commands that are received from your smart hub or smartphone.

These ” Smart TVs”, and “Smart speakers” effectively eliminate the need to rely on pesky HDMI cables, or AUX cords in order to play your music and movies.

Lighting.

Getting a couple of smart lights for your home is an easy and simple way to ease yourself into the smart home experience. The Philips Hue LED smart lights let you choose between 16-million color options to light up your room and create the ideal atmosphere for your space.

These light bulbs are controlled wirelessly via a mobile app, giving you full lighting control over all those movie nights, house parties, and festive holidays, all from the convenience of your smartphone.

Heating and cooling.

If you’re constantly forgetting to turn off the AC when you leave home, then you’ll love this smart home upgrade.

The Tado is one among many smart home devices that allow you to control your AC with only your smartphone. This can come in handy for all the times you might have left the AC running when leaving for work.

Bonus: It can even start cooling down your space during your commute home. How cool is that?

The Tado also comes with a Smart Climate Assistant feature that helps monitor and regulate your home temperature.

It lowers down the settings when there’s no one in the room, and starts to cool again when people come back into the room, helping you shave up to 40% off your electricity bill.

Security.

A smart lock is another wireless smart home device that can help give your security system at home a nice upgrade.

Smart Lock devices like the ones made by August can do a lot more than just keep your front door locked.

They’re equipped with a 24/7 Activity Feed that lets you track and monitor who exactly comes through your door at any given time.

If you’ve got friends staying over with you, or if your folks are in town and need access to your place, you could grant them digital keys that stay valid anywhere from a few minutes, to a few weeks.

This means you won’t have to worry about stolen, copied, or lost keys ever again.

The kitchen.

This smart fridge from Samsung is one of the newer (and amazing) home appliances to join the line of smart home products.

This smart fridge is capable of keeping track of expiration dates and will even send notifications to your smartphone, reminding you to consume the food you have in the fridge while it’s fresh.

The built-in smart device can also help you look up various cooking recipes and read the steps out to you while you’re cooking.

We love that it’s also able to play music and videos, and is able to sync with your smartphone to create a grocery list in real time.

The sofa.

How many times has your phone run out of battery just because your friends didn’t have the specific type of charging cable you needed?

Wireless chargers are nothing new in the world of technology. IKEA has already started experimenting with lamps and tables that come with the ability to charge your phone wirelessly.

But being able to charge your phone with a sofa slipcover? Now you can, with our newest customisation options, which include adding a wireless charger to your sofa slipcover.

The new wireless charging slipcovers effectively turn your standard IKEA sofa into a tech-enabled work of art that eliminates the need to get up from your sofa in order just to charge your phone every single time.

To find out more about our slipcover collection with wireless charging features, click the button below!

GO WIRELESS

These IKEA hacks will help you get organised like a pro

Posted on March 2, 2019April 29, 2025 by Jan Johan

Clutter can be a tricky thing to deal with. Its 50% junk, 50% things you’ll probably only use once or twice a year, and 100% a pain to deal with.

Wish there was a simple IKEA hack that could make your clutter go away?

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Instead of just giving you the best tips on how to purge your house of clutter. We thought that it would be more helpful to show you how you can reduce the ways you’re actually accumulating clutter in the first place.

So to help you achieve your most organized life, we’ve put together our favorite IKEA hacks to help you get started:

From the windows, to the walls

It’s time to rethink that empty space on your wall.

Though most people would normally think about hanging up some art or wall decoration to fill the space, some brilliant IKEA hackers have found a more practical use for bare walls.

With an affordable bed slat from IKEA and a couple of S- hooks, Kristina from ICHDesigner has turned her empty wall into a usable space to store toiletries, kitchenware, and other miscellaneous items at home.

By securing two mounting hooks onto the wall and letting the IKEA bed slat hang from it. Kristina used a couple of S-hooks to hang things up like a small storage basket, a few clipboards, and even a lamp.

Some hot hacks.

While we’re still on the topic of using bare walls, check out how Em e lyn from Apocketofrainbows IKEA-hacked a couple of plain picture ledges and turned them into a beautiful spice rack!

Even though IKEA does in fact sell spice racks specifically, Emelyn still needed something that was more space efficient and also something that could accommodate for their huge selection of hot sauces.

Sugar, spice, and everything kept nicely

Speaking of spice racks, these are some other ways of using the BEKVAM spice rack to help create more storage solutions for your home.

Look at how this IKEA hack turned an affordable and simple spice rack into a neat little children’s book display.

With just a touch of paint, these spice racks could easily be mistaken for a couple of neat little suspended shelves.

The BEKVAM spice racks also hold two rows of nail polish quite nicely — making it suitable for not just children books, but for makeup, nail polish, and other tiny trinkets that could be stored and organized as well.

The key to a simpler life

For something we use practically every day, why do we keep misplacing our house/ car keys right before leaving for work?

We found this brilliant hack on IKEA’s very own website which uses a couple of magnetic knife racks by the doorway to help you store your keys as well as other miscellaneous objects that keep disappearing on you.

Not everything needs to be used for their intended purpose.

With just a simple magnetic knife rack mounted by the doorway, you won’t ever need to worry about misplacing your keys ever again.

Reduce, reuse, and reorganize

Check out how this IKEA hack helped organize all sorts of home cleaning supplies with just a couple of affordable VARIERA Plastic bag dispensers.

The VARIERA’s hard plastic structure enables it to hold up all your cleaning tools nicely, and its porous design can also be utilized to hang those awkwardly shaped spray bottles you have hidden under your sink.

Time for more storage, are you down?

There’s so much storage potential in an unused empty space on your wall. But what about an unused empty space underneath your furniture?

When it comes to finding ways to maximize storage space, no stone can be left unturned. Or in this case, no furniture left unturned.

There’s more un-utilized space underneath your furniture than you might think. Which is precisely why we love this IKEA hack by Faith on Curbly.

Faith managed to latch 2 picture frames together and added some wheels underneath them to make a pull out drawer that fits nicely underneath her bed.

You’ve got mail

Mail is a common source of clutter for most homes.

Having a mix of bills, coupons, junk mail, and personal letters all jammed together in a little mailbox can certainly be annoying.

Which is why Kazmataz from Instructables decided to do something about it with a couple of IKEA magazine racks.

This IKEA hack turns a couple of magazine racks into a streamlined mail organizer simply by turning them over and attaching them underneath a suspended shelf.

Problem solved!

Now the fun part

If you’ve loved these IKEA hacks as much as we have and can’t get enough of them, we made a post on 7 Fresh and Fun Home Design Hacks that will definitely satisfy your home hacking itch.

Now that you finally have an organized and decluttered home— the real fun can begin.

Still looking for more ideas and design inspiration? Check out our free IKEA lookbook to help you take your space to the next level with some simple and easy home decorating tips.

DOWNLOAD THE IKEA EBOOK