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I have a confession to make: I never thought this would be one of the most controversial things I say, but I love Ikea. 

We’ve gone through multiple flats and houses in our lives. Yet Ikea has always been one of our go-to places to buy furniture and things for our home.

This is not sponsored, by the way, so you’re welcome, Ikea. 

“But what if everyone ends up owning the same stuff in their homes?” Personally, I don’t care. For me, a house is always unique by the little bits of personality added and the people inside the home, not just by the sofa or the bookcase that they own. 

So today, I’m going to share with you a list of the best buys we’ve got from Ikea in our minimalist home. And we don’t buy a lot of stuff, so these are items that have been really good for us. 

See the products in the video or keep reading below:

1. Vimle Sofa

This is the first one on my list, as it has been with us for about four years now and it looks almost the same as new. Obviously, it’s been sat on, played on, and jumped on, and it has lasted very well.

It is on the firmer side, but I still find it very comfy. It’s not a stiff sofa we can’t lie on. But what I have found is that its cushions are still in very good shape. They haven’t gotten saggy at all. 

One of the things I love most about the Vimle sofa is the fact that all the covers are removable. I can easily zip them off and put them in the washing machine. This is so helpful with little children around who get chocolate or pasta sauce on there. Though we don’t usually eat on the sofa, it just happens sometimes. 

We have it in the colour called Gunnared Beige, in between a beige and a gray I’d say. It’s my favorite sofa we’ve ever owned.

2. Tversted Rug

This is a more recent purchase. I found that the rug that we had here before was way too small for the place. Plus, we wanted something with a bit more contrast to the floor—something a bit brighter—and this was it for me. 

We’ve had a geometric-style rug before, but it wasn’t as nice as this one. And I found the price of this rug amazing for its size. I think this is the biggest size they have—it’s pretty much 2 × 3 m—and I honestly feel like it completely changed our living room. It looks and feels a lot more cosy, and I really love it.

3. Listerby coffee table

We’ve had this coffee table for about four years.

We wanted a round one because we have small children, and when we used to have a square or rectangular table, they would bump their heads on the corners, and it would drive me insane. Maybe I’m just a paranoid parent, but a round table makes things easier, a bit safer for them, and gives me a bit more peace of mind. Plus, I really love how it looks and the fact that it’s heavy and sturdy; it’s not flimsy at all.

There are some tiny little marks and scratches on it, because the kids also use it—but nothing major. They are visible only at a really close look. So I think it’s held up really, really well. So this is a coffee table I highly recommend.

4. Lauters Lamp

This lamp is probably one of my favorite purchases from Ikea. It’s a tripod-style lamps, which I find very fitting as a content creator. But I also just really love the look of it with the wooden stand and the white shade. It’s a beautiful light in the living room.

I’ve been trying to add more lighting pieces around the house. I find that not relying on just the main light—like the top light—makes the living room a lot cosier in the evenings. And this lamp is just really lovely.

5. Decor pillows

On the Vimle sofa, we have two pillows.

One is the Stockholm one and we’ve had it for ages and ages. It’s one of my favorite ones. I love the pattern on it as it bring contrast to the sofa. And the filling inside has held up really, really well. 

And then we also have a mustard Gurli one. We actually have two of these—one of them is upstairs—and I keep moving them around the house here and there. I really like the pop of colour. It brightens up the space, especially as we’re going into spring and summer.

6. Humlemott throw

This blanket is a little waffle knit. What I love most about it is its texture—it’s just really beautiful, in my opinion. It’s kind of lightweight, but it works really well. And if we need to be extra cosy, we can do a double layer.

We have this blanket in three colours. We keep the beige/cream one for downstairs. Then we have a dark blue one in my son’s bedroom, and a pink one in my daughter’s. We use them to cosy up on the sofa and we sometimes even use them to create forts with the kids, because they’re really lovely versatile throws.

7. Billy bookcase

Our Ikea Billy bookcase is also one of my favorite purchases. 

We needed a bit more space to store our books—we don’t have that many, but we still need somewhere to put them. So we did this Ikea Billy bookcase hack a few months ago. I wrote an article about it, if you want to look into the process. We love how it turned out.

It’s been a really useful space as we’re using it to also store our kids’ books and some of their toys, plus their craft bits.

We initially painted it all gray, like the walls, to make the whole thing look built-in, and we also covered the holes in it. But eventually, we decided to paint it white to have a bit more contrast on the wall and brighten up this space.

With be bookcase being on the wall that’s furthest away from natural light—all of the windows are on the opposite side—we felt like white actually makes more sense in that area. 

Sometimes we just need to experiment before we figure out what we actually like in a space.

8. Bestå TV bench

If you ask me, this is the best TV bench or unit! And I love that it can be customised on the Ikea website. Initially we got four of the bottom bits, and then we added one more.

The bench comes with legs, but it works well without them too, so we decided to not mount the legs. And we use it to store board games and keep our cables and charging station in it. We’ve also got the printer and paper in here, so it’s a really useful space to host a lot of the media items and TV things.

We’ve added a strip of LED lights behind it—also from Ikea—for some moody lighting, especially in the evening. It’s really lovely.

We’ve also recently added a wooden topper on top, which is actually from the Besta range. And again, it’s customisable on Ikea’s website. I really love this about Ikea—that most of their products can be customised.

9. Trofast storage

This is another piece of furniture we found really useful. Ikea has these in lots of different sizes. We had the long, narrow one when we lived in our rental, and it was a really good space to put Legos and little toys.

Eventually, when my son needed a different configuration in his wardrobe, we swapped it out. We’ve repurposed the Trofast unit in our under-stairs cupboard and use it for our little command center. We store in it the measuring tape, batteries, and lots of random little items that otherwise just get thrown around. 

10. Måla easel

This one has been with us for a few years now. Both kids enjoy drawing on it. My son loves playing school on it sometimes—so he’s the teacher at the whiteboard, we’re the students. It’s really fun, and it’s a really good purchase, I think.

11. Hemnes shoe cabinet

We use this cabinet in our hallway—we had a similar one in Romania—and I find it really useful. It’s quite slim and it stores all our shoes. I don’t want a whole bunch of shoes thrown around at the entrance. That would not only be and look messy, but it wouldn’t be very practical, to be stumbling on them all the time.

So this shoe cabinet works perfectly. There are four people in our household, and there are four little cubbies in it, so each person gets one spot. And we keep all of our daily shoes in there. The out-of-season ones and the ones we don’t wear regularly are stored away separately. 

12. Pax/Aheim wardrobes

These are also a great choice in my opinion. 

We used to have a customised Pax wardrobe in our bedroom in our previous house. It had three units—two for me, one for my husband. Then we moved into the current house which already had a built-in wardrobe in the master bedroom. So we split the Pax wardrobe into two: two units for my son, as he’s older, and one for my daughter as she’s a toddler and doesn’t need as much space yet.

We also swapped around the interior components a bit. We made them a better fit for a kids’ wardrobe rather than for a grown-up. That’s one of the things I love about Ikea wardrobes and furniture in general—when life changes, when situations shifts, and as kids grow, any owned piece can be customised to fit the current needs. That’s exactly what we’ve done in my son’s bedroom!

13. Malm bed

We have the Malm bed in my son’s room, and I really, really love it. It’s a great size for him—a proper single bed—so I’m sure he’ll grow up with it. 

One of the main reasons I love it is the two huge drawers underneath. We use them for storing Legos because, otherwise, they’d be all over the floor! 

This way, tidying up is super easy—we just tuck everything under the bed. It’s not perfectly organised; there are always Legos mixed up in there, but that’s fine—that’s what toys are for!

14. Kullen dresser

Inside our master bedroom wardrobe, there was a big empty space at the bottom, so we decided to make better use of it by adding the Kullen dressers. 

We got them a long time ago when we lived in a small flat in London, and they’ve been really useful for extra storage.

We’ve carried them everywhere with us, but Ikea also has the Malm dressers, which are very similar—just slightly bigger. They’re simple drawers, but they work so well! 

Back in our flat in Romania, we had Malm drawers, too. We’ve moved a lot, lived in many different places, and had so many Ikea furniture pieces along the way—I just really love them.

15. Micke desk and Örfjall chair

We have these in my son’s bedroom, and they’ve been great for him. It’s a small desk—perfect for his space. British houses aren’t massive by any means, and while our living room is the largest space in the house, the bedrooms are on the smaller side. His desk fits perfectly, though, and it’s just right for his needs.

One thing I really love to go with it is the Skådis pegboard from Ikea. We hung it on the wall above his desk, and it’s been a game changer! We also added little accessories like pots for pens, a tray for papers, and other storage solutions. 

This means all his pens, crayons, and supplies are off the desk surface and neatly organised on the wall, keeping his workspace clear. Since his desk is already small, this system makes a huge difference—otherwise, the area would feel too cluttered.

I hope you found this list with our favourite 15 Ikea items for our minimalist home helpful. I’d love to know your thoughts, so make sure to comment below!