What is the famous Blekinge White? Why do people want it? What colour is it even anyway! We discuss this and more today.
Que?
Blekinge White is the name of a famous IKEA fabric. Best known for being used in their Ektorp slipcovers, this was a pure white cotton duck fabric. And sadly, the tense is correct as well.
Pourquoi?
Because it was white, it was bleachable, and it gave you a chance at having that elegant country / shabby chic home. Did I mention it was machine washable? Many a mother-blogger took up and embraced this fabric for giving them a chance at having a white sofa even with kids and pets. Plus, a slipcover was pretty cheap.
Shockingly, Blekinge White was never the brilliant stark white that you might have seen around the internet. Blekinge White as it came from IKEA was always an off-white colour, with hints of beige. If you’ve heard of Pantone or happen to have a Pantone book on you, it would be Pantone colour Marshmallow, 11-4300.
This is it:
How do I get it?
Sadly, unless you’re lucky enough to stumble upon one of the Ektorp covers on Ebay or Gumtree, you’re out of luck. IKEA discontinued the Blekinge White at the end of 2015 (except for the lucky Brits). Their replacement is the Vittaryd White, which is a polyester blend and not the same colour. It also costs 3x the price of the original Blekinge White.
Don’t despair, though, we’ve recently updated our popular Gaia White fabric to be closer to the Blekinge White. We’ll be using Pantone colour Bright White, 11-0601.
Here’s a showdown shot:
Of course, if you’re worried, I’d suggest heading over to our fabric samples page and grabbing a pack of our 100% cotton Gaia fabrics. If the Gaia White isn’t close enough to what you dreamed of, you could even bleach the covers for that “white” white look, and it’s available for every sofa model that we make slipcovers for (and even some custom sofas that we don’t show on our website ;)
Hope this helps, now go forth and live your dreams of your classic white sofa!
It’s quite hard to decide with so many reviews giving Pottery Barn such low ratings. But with some objective reasoning, I’ll settle this once and for all.
A few months ago, we reviewed whether the Pottern Barn sofa collection was worth recovering or not – click here to find out.
Today, I’d like to review this more personally, and actually come to a sound conclusion by the end of this post.
As with any product, how much an item costs is almost definitely the first thing you’d consider before making the purchase. Sure it’s subjective and relative at times, depending on your disposable income.
At the end of the day though, what we should really look out for is whether it’s “value for money” and whether it has a good price-performance ratio.
Let’s quickly break down average spending if you were to go to Pottery Barn for a sofa.
This is just to name a few of the more affordable ones as the rest are definitely beyond $1,100, which is way above (my) budget. On average and depending on fabric selection, the minimum you need is a $1,000 and could possibly end up spending around $2,000 if you’re going for a slightly fancier fabric.
Many people would say that you pay for what you get, and I truly believe that Pottery Barn sofas would definitely be of decent quality. By that, I mean I’d expect it to last for a good 10-12 years.
For the most part, I just don’t really like the “classic” round-arm look so as durable as they might be – I’m quite hesitant to part with my money just yet (I would go for their discontinued Solano series, however).
Online credibility
Now with Google and social media becoming our main communications and news feed, it’s very easy to purchase things from the Internet as well as review them. As per my previous investigation on Pottery Barn Reviews, I had found that Pottery Barn was a pretty decent furniture retailer a few years back but because of poor customer service, their name had gradually deteriorated.
Reviews play an integral role in determining whether or not to make a purchase with a brand or not. If Pottery Barn doesn’t improve their digital reputation in the years to come, people will pretty much boycott the brand altogether unfortunately.
Aesthetics
The Pottery Barn sofa series are all very standard and while most people would call it classic, I’d call them a little dated.
There was a discontinued series called the “Solano” which I’d definitely call a timeless piece, regardless of which century you’re in I feel strongly that it’ll work in that living space.
A simple, single seat cushion with square arms, but because it’s fairly rounded it just looks very comfy overall. The closest thing to this would probably be to hack a Karlstad and get a large single cushion instead but alas, the Karlstad has been discontinued and is now an endangered IKEA sofa.
Apart from the “Solano”, I’d probably go for the PB Comfort Square series which look fairly close to the IKEA Kivik. If you’ve checked out our Kivik sofa review, you’d know that we’re a strong advocate and when it comes to price and performance – the Kivik is an incredibly strong contender.
The Pottery Barn PB Comfort Square Arm sofa is pretty similar but the most obvious difference would be the width and height of the armrests: The Kivik has very wide and low armrests which can easily accommodate another person to sit on the sofa should the need arise.
Image credit: Comfort Works
Cost of maintenance
So if you do end up getting an upholstered sofa from Pottery Barn, you’ll realise that it’s going to need cleaning by year 4 or 5 depending on how OCD you are (I’m fairly domesticated with a no food policy on the couch).
Well with upholstery, you’re pretty much out of luck – you either get something to hide the stains (like a custom slipcover) or you’ll basically have to throw out the sofa. Such a waste right?
Most people would get the slipcovered alternative, so when the sofa has become thoroughly soiled – all we need to do is pop out the original slipcover to have it dry cleaned or machine washed, whatever the care instructions are.
The thing is, a typical slipcover from Pottery Barn are just as pricey as the sofa. Taking the PB Comfort Sofa as an example, its slipcover can range from $560 to $1,660 which is about half the sofa’s price. At $560 it’s still reasonable, but at $1,000 you can definitely purchase another decent sofa elsewhere.
Conclusion
All in all, even though a Pottery Barn sofa might not have the most contemporary look, and may have questionable post-sales service – it still is not too bad a product, seeing how popular it actually is. It’s even made its way to Australia!
So while I’ll probably never buy a Pottery Barn sofa, I’d definitely consider one second hand simply because it most likely won’t cost as much.
And if you ever need a replacement slipcover for your Pottery Barn sofa, slipcover makers such as ourselves would be readily available to provide some at a very affordable rate.
Wondering what our slipcovers feel like in person? You can order up to eight fabric samples for free to try them out for yourself and see how you like them.
After the discontinued Karlstad, many speculations have been made as to what its successor would be. Some have speculated the Landskrona, which is surprisingly similar to the Karlstad but it was only available in bycast leather.
Today, we’ll be reviewing the latest hybrid sofa that’s a cross between the Karlstad and Kivik – the IKEA Norsborg.
Quick Rundown ‘n’ Overview
So just like the Kivik and Karlstad, and as a potential successor to the Karlstad, you can definitely expect it to be another modular sofa with many pieces that can be separated and/or combined to create various configurations.
The Norsborg currently boasts 12 different options on their site, and is available in most countries across the world.
I might even consider getting a dual chaise lounge combo for movie nights but let’s weigh out the pros and cons first shall we? :)
Aesthetics
The IKEA Norsborg only comes in 5 colours: Edum Dark Blue, Edum Light Blue, Finsta Dark Grey, Finsta Red and Finsta White.
Pretty generic colours that would be fairly well received by the public I reckon, but I’m a little skeptical on the Red.
Moving on to the legs, I’m actually pretty happy how they offer these modern-looking rounded wooden legs as well as the grey cylindrical ones. Personally if I’m going for something contemporary I’d say the Norsborg fits into any current living space quite well.
However pulling off a vintage look might be a bit tricky.
Comfort
At 5’5″ (165cm) I’d say the first thing I noticed when I sat on the loveseat was the deep seating. I’m short, no doubt about that – but compared to the Kivik, I didn’t like how the seat cushions were so solid. It just didn’t feel comfy and I’d say my feelings were as comparable to Jeremy Clarkson’s when he drove the Perodua Myvi.
The armrests were a bit high compared to the Kivik so I’d say it loses some points there as I can no longer sit on the armrests without feeling as if I’d break it.
In terms of comfort overall I expected a little more. I mean look at it, wouldn’t you be thinking “Oh my God it’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!” too?
Not depressed, just disappointed.
On a good note though, I believe this is the sofa for those with a height advantage. Structurally it also felt pretty solid, so I think that’s where the trade-off happened.
Price
So here comes the determining factor for most people. In the US, the Norsborg sofa (3 seater) starts at US$499, but if you were to go for the Finsta Dark Grey it’d be US$599.
Comparing apples to apples with a Kivik Sofa in Dansbo Dark Grey at US$549, I would personally be happier with a Kivik – but that’s just my two cents.
Meanwhile replacement slipcovers vary depending on your configuration, but we make Norsborg sofa covers (3 seater) that start from US$339 in 100% cotton. Not bad for a whole new look!
Hackability
Okay I’m probably biased because I’ve always liked the Kivik, and this review was supposed to be about how the Norsborg supposedly replaces the Karlstad so I apologise for digressing.
IKEA seems to have made something new with this sofa, which are the armrest pockets at the side.
Pretty handy! Now you can always have your magazines, remote control and iPad close by your side :)
Note that this applies to ALL Norsborg sofa armrests though, so if you have seen the U-shaped sectional you might want to think it through carefully. If you lean towards a simpler, minimalist style, I’d recommend opting out of the armrest pocket option if possible.
But wait, there’s more! You can swap the legs out for some super slim mid-century inspired sofa legs which fit the Norsborg sofas for a different look.
Last but not least, we did a little hack recently (in 2017) where a custom asked if it was possible to make a long-skirt version for the Norsborg. We tried and this was what we got:
Overall Conclusion
All in all, I know this was quite a bit so here’s the short version: – Aesthetics: 7.5/10 – Comfort: 6/10 (Durability: 7/10 arguably) – Price: 7/10 – Hackability: 8/10
It’s not the most comfortable sofa out there from IKEA generally but it isn’t too bad a sofa. If you’re after a very Scandinavian looking sofa and wish to impress friends without them staying too long in your home – this is the sofa to get ;)
Hope you’ve found this review helpful and if you did, don’t forget to share it :)
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