Home gym equipment made for small spaces usually shares a common element: The pieces are meant to be compact and easily stored out of sight. It’s great that there are so many options out there to enable this type of multifunctionality in the home. But leave it to Ikea to upend the small space home gym concept with their new and first ever workout line, with multi-tasking and aesthetically appealing pieces that aren’t necessarily meant to be hidden away.
Ikea revealed the 19-piece DAJLIEN collection, which is a Swedish slang term for “daily,” at Art Basel in Miami Friday, and it will be available on the website in January. The line contains exercise furniture and accessories made from light bamboo wood and soft-in-your-hand powder coated metals. The palette of greens, yellows, and a dash of lavender are bright and inviting without being in your face. Weights and other unexpected pieces come in circles, not rectangles. The result of the rounded edges and friendly colors is that you can choose to store the pieces away, or incorporate them into your home design.
“It looks beautiful and we want these items to blend well in the homes,” says Sarah Fager, one of the Ikea DAJLIEN line designers. “In homes you usually find plants and you usually find wood and then green goes very well with wood. And then there’s also the other aesthetics of the round shapes, the oval shapes like the activity mats are oval. So that’s also something that kind of keeps the whole collection together.”
Functional items are meant to play double duty in the home, like the sturdy storage bench on which you can do your bent over rows or step ups, that also looks good enough to serve as a coffee table or extra place for seating. The large oval mat can be a living room centerpiece that also serves as a space for HIIT or dancing or bodyweight exercises.
“We didn’t really see any logical reason that [the exercise mat] should be this shape [a rectangle],” Fager says. “Why not make it bigger, more generous?” It also rolls up easily so if you don’t want it to multitask, it can go away in a powder coated storage cubby on wheels.
Besides the weights, mat, storage cubby, and bench, other highlights include a valet stand (for towels and straps, or maybe even your coats), an air purifier, knee pads, cushions, and more. There are 19 total pieces in the collection, ranging from $3.99 – $135. A personal favorite? The slippers and ponchos, which Fager says are perfect to take along with you to an oceanic cold plunge, if you’re trying to do as the Swedish do.
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With Ikea’s entry into the home fitness space, the days of yoga mats haphazardly tucked in corners and all industrial black and silver metal everything are behind us. As movement plays such a large role in our lives, why shouldn’t it be a part of our homes we’re proud of?
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