Ikea Share Space – A Social Networking Space?

Ikea is a unique yet large organisation that has become a household name in the UK from arriving from Sweden around 25 years ago. Since then they have been providing domestic furniture from sofas to home office desks, from dining chairs and dining tables to workstations. Share Space is a new project set up by Ikea that actually allows users to upload photos of their house for the world to see.

The reason they have done this is to encourage everyday people who are not trained designers, but have a love for design to show off their spaces. This can be from their lounges, bedrooms and bathrooms to even their outdoor areas and their outdoor furniture.

The idea is that people can go onto the website, log in and look through a range of peoples rooms and save ones that they think are the best. The people that upload the photo can tag items that (usually from Ikea) and the viewers can add these to their wish list. It’s an area that people can get inspiration from when thinking about redecorating or refurbishing their home.

As well as being a unique way to shop, the website also has a social network element to it. Since the creation of Facebook, Skype and even MySpace, the world appears to have gotten smaller as more and more people seem to be interacting online. It seems odd that you can meet people online now through a furniture shop, but doesn’t the idea of logging on and viewing stranger’s houses seem odd in the first place?

In any case it appears very popular as you can browse through hundreds and hundreds of home offices, bathrooms, kitchens etc… With the creation of share space, it makes you really think about the way that we use the internet and even what will be next?