12 Makeovers for the IKEA Dresser Everyone Owns Here's proof that you can have champagne on a beer budget. BEFORE: BORGSJO cabinetBEFORE: BORGSJO cabinetThis line of shelves allows you to mix and match cabinets to create different looks. After: Refined Office StorageAfter: Refined Office StorageLining a wall, a row of these cabinets seriously impresses. This blogger used glass doors on top and solid doors on the bottom, so there's space above for pretty things and plenty of hiding spots below.See more at Avery Street Design » 23 Crafty Ways to Repurpose Empty Wine BottlesWhile companies like ABC Home and Design Within Reach tout the idea of bringing high design to the masses, their items are still out of reach for most of us. That's especially true for frequent movers, for whom it's hard to justify shelling out big money for furniture that might get left behind.The increasingly popular flat-pack furniture model. It's generally affordable, you can buy it immediately, assemble and dissemble it at will, and you can furniture shop without leaving your couch (or floor, as the case may be).
IKEA led the way, we'll give it that. But other companies have taken flat-pack furniture and made it better: sturdier, sleeker, customizable, and able to survive multiple moves. Lately, these new flat-pack purveyors been coming out of the woodwork. Here are our top five. Hem, the furniture spin-off of the late e-commerce site Fab, sits right between mass-market flat-pack furniture and pricey high design. Hem's pieces feature sleek, Scandinavian-influenced design (after being acquired in February, the company is now based in Sweden), and many items can be customized online. Price-wise, it's a far cry from IKEA—sofas top out at about $1,800; coffee tables are around $315—but it's still a steal compared to DWR, where sofas start at around $3,000. When it comes to customized online furniture, Tylko takes the cake. Launched last year and backed by startup champ Yves Behar, the Polish furniture company has its own app that allows consumers to tweak the designs of a basic selection of products.
Using your smartphone camera, you can test out what the design looks like in your home, all while seeing in real time how the changes affect the price. The selection is limited—all furniture is wooden, and the offerings are basically tables and shelves—but you'll have a hand in the creation. The Detroit-based furniture company Floyd launched in 2013 with the Floyd Leg, a simple clamp-on metal leg that could transform any slab of wood into a table. Since then, the company has grown to include full-fledged tables, a handy bed, and a shelving unit, but has retained its dedication to simplicity and those clever metal frameworks. Floyd's products are exciting for their endless potential for reincarnation—with the metal legs and handsome hardware, it's easy to switch out wood at your whim. The Providence-based flat pack purveyor Greycork with an Indiegogo campaign and has been on the up and up ever since. This month, it launched a new site and a complete living room collection .
It's basically a fresher, more stylish, better-quality version of IKEA. It's also the closest in price to the Swedish behemoth—you can get the entire living room set for $1,700, about half the price of a DWR sofa—but it is made to last five to ten years, with "two to three moves in between." Leave it to an ex-Apple engineer to rethink not only furniture, but also the system by which it gets to you. Brad Sewell's e-retailer Campaign was designed to pack flat and fit back into its original cardboard packaging to be shipped via Fedex or UPS for your next move (or slid into your trunk). So instead of shipping your books and kitchen equipment and leaving the furniture for the curb, you can also ship your couch. Right now, the company only offers an armchair and two sofas—and due to overwhelming demand, they've sold out until August. But you can still reserve them now. Never miss a story. I'd also like to receive special Fast Company offersEditor's Note: This is one of the most-read leadership articles of 2014.
Click here to see the full list. It all started with a bet. I came into the Fast Company office one April morning last year and crafted a makeshift platform for my laptop and secondary monitor from discarded Ikea side tables so I could try standing while I worked. People were naturally curious when they saw my new setup and started to bet that I wouldn't last at my new standing desk for more than three months. Trash-talking ensued and money and offers for dinner were promised.I had to stay standing just to prove everyone wrong. I was first introduced to the idea of standing desks months earlier when visiting a friend in Los Angeles and saw her husband's standing desk setup in his home office. He stood at his desk all day, doing the yoga tree pose in between to give one of his legs a break. He loved it and told me that his posture had improved.My lower back and my shoulders always felt tight at the end of the day and I usually felt fatigued on my way home from the office even though I eat fairly well and exercise regularly.
Turns out there is research to back up my feelings—in fact sitting for a long period of time is so bad for you that some have called sitting the new smoking. On the first day, I definitely felt that my body was protesting from standing for several hours. My legs felt numb and my lower back felt tired. It was so bad that on my way home during rush hour, I pushed an elderly woman out of the way so I could get a seat in the subway.I thought of the ceviche and the cash at the end of the line. After a week, executive editor Noah Robischon took pity on me and bought a chef's mat to provide relief to my feet. The cushion definitely helped but at times I found myself marching in place to keep my blood flowing. Our office manager soon followed with a crank to attach my monitor to my cube's wall that allowed me to adjust its height, and a desk tray to put my laptop and mouse high enough to keep my arms at a 90-degree angle. With standing came the natural inclination to avoid slouching.
I kept reminding myself to march in place, do side bends and stretches and sometimes even squats. Since I was already standing I found that I walked around the office more, taking more frequent, short breaks. Soon, I was okay skipping my monthly lower back massages. Sure, I still wanted to sit during meetings and when commuting to and from work, but I started to prefer standing eight hours during the day. Before when I was sitting at my desk, it would be hours until I realized I had been hunched over, or what my colleague Jason Feifer calls "Thrillering" or "T-Rexing." My shoulders would always feel tense because I tended to scrunch them up towards my ears. When I stood to take a break, my legs would feel numb for a few seconds because I have not shifted from my sitting position in hours. Fast-forward to June, three months after I made the bet—I was still standing. I pocketed the $40 wagered against me and was rewarded with an expensive dinner. No one has made a bet against me in the office ever since.
But even after the bet ended I kept standing. Then recently I discovered a new approach to my standing desk. One day, while making coffee in our office kitchen, I noticed Mark of the New York Focal Furniture showroom packing away the Locus Seat. He was in the office for another appointment but I convinced him to check out my standing desk setup. To my delight, he agreed to leave the Locus Seat for me to try for two weeks. It only took him a few minutes to teach me how to adjust it properly and how to stand and lean on it correctly. The first day required my body to readjust. My feet no longer carried my entire body weight. My weight was distributed from my lower back down to my thighs, my calves, and my feet. I was leaning back rather than standing, forcing my spine to be in a neutral position. It seemed unsteady at first, but once it was adjusted to my height, I was able to sway side to side without worrying about stability; the pivoting seat actually helped me adjust and encouraged me to move.