This Dutch Designer’s IKEA Collaboration Stems From One of the Retailer’s Popular Lamps

We all have a soft spot for IKEA; even world-renowned designers like Rotterdam-based Sabine Marcelis swear by the Swedish retailer’s products. Well, one in particular: the Fado lamp. The piece has been in Marcelis’s life since she was a student—a true testament to its timelessness—and she currently has a few of them dispersed around her home, from side tables to floors. All that to say, it’s no surprise that the glowy spheres informed her upcoming collaboration with the company, dubbed Varmblixt. 

It will be coming to a wall near you in spring 2023, and IKEA has disclosed just two powder-coated metal lamps thus far. “Each one should definitely have its own identity and character but feel timeless enough to grow with you,” says Marcelis. And there will be plenty more to shop from the collection, expanding outside of the lighting category, too. 

True fans will remember the designer’s previous collection with IKEA, which launched in April 2021. But rather than being part of a group artist’s line, this one is all Marcelis. When talking to the designer about how her creative approach shifted with this big-box assortment, her answer was: “Not at all.” She maintained the same sense of wonder that she puts into her gallery works, “just in a very different way with very different materials.”  

Offered in white (to blend into blank walls) and deep burgundy, the curved rod and hooplike designs can lend themselves to any style of home. While the collection photos happened to be shot in her own modern loft, she designed them just as much for traditional spaces. A styling tip from Marcelis is to line a few of the linear ones down a hallway to create the illusion of an arch. 

So for fellow atmospheric-lighting lovers, start clearing wall space for these must-have items. And if waiting until next spring is too hard to fathom, you can bring a little Marcelis into your home with the Fado lamp today.