In the foreseeable future, there are few opportunities for domestic players to form a “home design system”
A year has passed since the final sale in Russian IKEAs died down, which then closed — at least for a long time, and maybe forever. There are no prerequisites for a return, and even the production base of the concern in Russia has found new owners. Therefore, no matter how sad it is for many residents of Moscow and million-plus cities, they have to learn to live without the Swedish “universal assistant” in home design. How the world of repair and home comfort has changed in these two years, MK correspondents understood.
There is no opportunity for domestic market players to form a “home design system” in the foreseeable future.
The Swedish chain wasn't just selling furniture — it was selling dreams of the perfect home and the revelation that «beautiful» doesn't necessarily mean «expensive.» That is why she managed to become part of the way of life of a significant stratum of citizens, and not only Muscovites. The assortment is half the battle (although it was quite significant there), more important is the complexity of the design: without much effort on the part of the buyer buying the interior from IKEA, it turned out … no, not automatically of high quality, but it was impossible to make egregious mistakes. It's like a constructor: buy parts — and in the end you will succeed.
How to equip an apartment now? It turned out that many of us, accustomed to good basic design, found ourselves in a vacuum. On the left — neon blue and undulating transitions of furniture and interior items «from the nearest hardware store», on the right — professional solutions and custom projects for space money. Will we have to reinvent the wheel?
Partly — although we can handle it. Anyone who has ever equipped an apartment «from scratch» (or at least 80% or more) knows that repairs and interiors are built on three pillars — materials, furniture, accessories.
The theater starts with a hanger, and repairs start with building materials. Everyone who has ever done this knows: the lion's share of the estimate is hidden not in beautiful plumbing and not in stylish furniture, but in a dozen bags of concrete needed to level the walls, in laminate boxes, double-glazed windows, wall paint, etc. The good news is that there are no problems with all this in Russia, you just need to look.
“Some brands of manufacturers of accessories, enamels, varnishes and other raw materials have closed their official representative offices and showrooms,” says Petr Safiullin, member of the expert council of the Moscow Interior and Design Week. — Another thing is that almost all of this can now be found on marketplaces. But this is not very convenient, because there are no showrooms where you can see the goods. Although in general, everything can be ordered or a replacement can be found. In general, everything that happened had a healing effect on the furniture industry: many new players appeared. Competition has increased, it always gives impetus to development.
Before, many people preferred Russian tiles for the bathroom and kitchen (albeit with a name that “mows” like Italian). The price-quality ratio is good, the collections are diverse — what else do you need? The same applies to paint: experienced foremen used to prefer to buy it not in salons, but on the construction market.
Moreover, according to a survey made by one of the furniture companies, this year 36% of Russians plan to do repairs on their own , another 48% will use the help of workers, but they assume to manage the process personally.
“In order to make a quality repair, it is important to understand that a good construction team is a team represented by a foreman and several workers over whom he exercises control,” reminds architect Konstantin Lagutin. — If you want to save money, then you can find and hire workers yourself, and also realize that in this case you yourself become their foreman. If there is a desire and an opportunity, then the best thing a person can do is to do it with his own hands. In addition to hands, there is also the energy that you put into your apartment when you improve it yourself.
This year 36% of Russians plan to do the repairs themselves.
According to Lagutin, if you are not ready to deal with all the nuances of repair on your own, then it is better not to torture yourself and entrust it to professionals. You can delegate to the masters such complex things as plumbing, electrical, complex technical work. To save money, you can search for wizards on aggregator sites — for each individual element of the task. A person who is just entering the world of repair, according to the architect, should “set up as before going to the doctor”: figure it out, delve into the issue and try not to rush. It doesn’t matter what your budget and what requests are — in any case, this is a large-scale project, so you can’t rush to decisions here. It will take at least 6 months to make the apartment as comfortable as possible for yourself and your family. This time is enough to understand in detail all the nuances of finishing materials and furniture.
The first thing to do before starting repairs is to make estimates and inventory of existing furniture, advises the interlocutor of MK.
— If you already have a good bed and a comfortable mattress that fits the size, then leave them, do not be sure to update all interior items, says Konstantin Lagutin. — If we talk about old furniture that you already have at home, then before throwing it away, you need to evaluate it in terms of durability. If the old sofa is durable and comfortable to sit on, then you can change the upholstery and you will have an updated beautiful and comfortable sofa.
Another thing is that the sofa to the sofa can be different. For example, most of the more or less budgetary designs of the new millennium — like «books», like «accordions», that simple options from several layers of foam rubber, laid out right on the floor — are not particularly suitable for «renovation», dear to them, if they are old, on rubbish heap. Soviet-era ottomans are another matter: they are usually made firmly, and after reupholstering spring cushions, you get a real mid-century style. True, go and find some furniture fabric in the store — so that it is both durable and not with a pattern like «Barsik wants to be a leopard»!
And the preservation of old furniture, the architect insists, should not be at the expense of harmony. One thing that doesn't match in color can spoil the whole picture. And here paints (for example, chalk) come to the rescue: for ridiculous money, you can paint any object so that it harmoniously fits the interior. This is the most budgetary recipe (which, by the way, is often followed by the designers themselves): take old furniture, repaint it in a general way. True, the base — that is, floors and walls — must be of high quality.
“Many are accustomed to doing things differently,” says Konstantin Lagutin. — We often strive to buy everything cheap so that there is enough money for everything at once. And then endlessly from year to year we spend money to remake something or change an uncomfortable or quickly worn out piece of furniture. The person seems to have saved money, bought a cheap bed with a cheap mattress, and the next year he repeats the same mistake and again buys himself a little more expensive, but again not the mattress he would like to sleep on.
However, the mattress and bed are the next step.
There is no repair without furniture: maybe not everyone will guess about the alignment of the walls, but the option “I want a new table!” available to everyone. Again, where can I find it? Left without the Swedish giant, the townspeople turned around — and then the «import substitutes» arrived in time. Here the logic is clear: if something worked, then the best option is to make a copy of it. Why be smart? The notorious McDonald's, which was revived in Russia under a funny name and with exactly the same cheeseburgers, is an example of this. It's the same with furniture. And period.
The MK correspondent looked into one of the stores that proudly call themselves the «new IKEA». True, the discrepancy between the positioning of reality becomes obvious already from the scenery — in the original there was a «kingdom» of many hundreds of square meters, but here everything is much more modest. A small compartment — a corner, if it's fashionable — among dozens of other furniture stores in the mall.
There really is furniture here. At first glance, it really looks like «the one», at least in style. Everything is concise, utilitarian. The main role is a variety of racks — all colors and styles.
— We need to take one like this, narrow, and one wider, but of the same color. We’ll put books in the wide one, and the narrow one will remain for your collection of donkeys,” an intelligent middle-aged woman argues aloud, looking back at her companion. He just nods, and then carefully asks:
—Listen, maybe we can just buy planks in the market? Uncle Valya will assemble such a rack for us, or rather, what we want.
The hypothesis is not so idle — it is reasonable in our era of great austerity. Shelving does not look like something unique, for the sake of which it would be necessary to solemnly create a store. Three long vertical boards, a few short transverse ones, holes and carnations… I recall the history of the construction of Pumpkin's house godfather in the cartoon about Chipollino: «If you put a couple of bricks next to each other, it would make a glorious house.»
Although such simple racks — let's face it, things-functions — are really in demand, and there is a demand for them. But there is also an offer (and always has been!). True, it remains to be seen whether our manufacturers will be able to drill and cut parts as accurately as under the control of the Swedes…
The same can be said about upholstered furniture — comfortable, but absolutely basic sofas and armchairs in pleasant natural colors. So basic that it's easier to imagine them somewhere in a chain hotel or beauty salon, and not in an ordinary apartment. This is despite deliberate minimalism — they say, paint the walls white, buy a gray sofa and dilute it all with bright accessories! — is already gradually going out of fashion (to the great joy of those who are a little sick of this bias towards Scandinavia).
And it seems that most buyers perceive this furniture in this way — things-functions, and not an interesting interior solution. There is a task — there is a solution.
Let's say a chair is just a chair. Dark yellow and comfortable. Although no, something can still be said: this is a copy (or plagiarism?) of a fairly well-known Swedish product. But the original today — if you look at the site in Belarus and translate prices offhand — it would cost about 40 thousand rubles. Well, the ersatz made in Russia is 18,900. There was once an advertisement: “If you can’t see the difference, why pay more?” Well, only the lower back can answer this question — and not immediately, but after a couple of weeks of operation.
As for the opportunity to form a “home design system”, as was the case with the departed brands, domestic players do not have it in the foreseeable future, Petr Safiullin believes. “However, it doesn’t make sense to copy this,” the expert says, “you need to form your own system based on internal needs and cultural values.”
What these values will look like in relation to home design remains to be seen. And the point is not only in cultural and social strata (say, one idea of the beautiful for a doctor of art history, quite another for a wealthy rural entrepreneur), but also in the territorial scope of the country. Well, this giant cannot think the same way! What is beautiful in the understanding of a Petersburger, for a resident of Vladivostok it will be … somehow strange. Or not. Time will tell.
Finally, the third whale of a beautiful interior is accessories. The same pillows, blankets, bed linen, new salad bowls and glasses, long cocktail spoons and plush toys that create a unique (albeit serial!) charm of every home. Here, it would seem, everything is simpler: we have textile and other “light” industries, several hundred, if not thousands, of designers graduate from universities every year … Take it and do it!
However, not everything is so simple : 2022 showed that import substitution is required here too. As manufacturers delicately put it, the sanctions “complicated certain production processes.”
True, IKEA was not a monopolist in this market: 2022 also took away Zara Home and H&M Home, which satisfied the population's need for beautiful plates and dressing gowns no worse. Partly even better: these stores were located in ordinary shopping centers, and not in the castle of Khimki, so you could drop in there in between times, on your way home from work, in between buying new jeans and a loaf of bread.
On this analogues have already been found on the market: as in the case of clothing, Turkish and Belarusian manufacturers were the first to arrive in time — and there, you see, Russian ones will catch up.
— I think there is a possibility. We have been working for many years, long before the competitors left, and we have never had a shortage of customers,” says the manager of one of these stores. — For some, prices are important, but we have always been cheaper than Zara, and someone likes the design.
However, it seems that the “stove” from which the new Russian design will have to be rebuilt will be the same basic Scandinavian minimalism. Simply because it is the simplest and most convenient «surface» on which you can build your own aesthetics.
“There is a rule of three colors: for your interior to be harmonious, you must follow this rule,” says Konstantin Lagutin. — Let's say your interior has natural wood, white walls and some favorite color, for example, beige. Then you start choosing furniture and decor for yourself. With the question «where to buy?» can also be sorted out. Furniture is best purchased in hypermarkets, where you can buy all the necessary attributes at once. True, if you want something really unusual, you can follow industry exhibitions where ideas from designers are presented. You can also find brands on social networks.
Now this approach is gradually falling out of fashion, but consumers still want it: so that, sir, the curtains should be exactly the same material as the lampshade of the floor lamp and covers for decorative pillows, and the vases on the chest of drawers perfectly echoed the lampshades. It's perfect — not like choosing a handbag to match the shoes! — but this is what the store as an ecosystem is needed for, and not as a place where they just sell cabinets. However, whether this textile will be Swedish, Cheboksary or Ivanovo is really not fundamental. A person is an accommodating creature: he usually easily agrees to a new one if it turned out beautifully and inexpensively. Well, nostalgia — nostalgia for trips to the «aquarium store», when you either furnished your first apartment bought with hard-earned money, or romantically built a family nest — will remain with you forever. No sanctions will take it away.