IKEA re-launches its iconic BILLY bookcase to be more environmentally circular

Launched in 1979, BILLY has been one of the best-selling and most popular IKEA products for over 40 years. Now, BILLY is becoming even more timeless with improvements in circularity through material and design changes that improve the appeal, quality, and durability to increase the product’s lifespan. 

“BILLY is one of our most beloved products, and it represents an important part of IKEA’s history. The new wood expressions will be a great facelift, and the shift to paper foil enables more efficient material use and reduces production waste. It is a giant leap into the future for BILLY. We hope it continues to be as popular and spread joy in people’s lives for many more years to come”, says Jesper Samuelsson, Business Leader at Inter IKEA Group.   

The veneer used today will be replaced with a high-quality paper foil, enabling new eye-catching wood expressions while making it more durable without compromising the scratch resistance. New colours and finishes available will include black oak, dark brown oak, brown walnut and oak. These expressions will better align with the IKEA range and replace today’s available colours, except for the white finish, which will remain available with the same improvements. In addition, the complementary OXBERG door series will be relaunched with the same updates. 

New wrapped edges will be introduced to reduce the number of plastic edge bands without compromising the stability, and paper edge bands will replace the remaining plastic ones over time. This means the majority of materials used to produce BILLY will come from renewable sources in the future, another important step towards IKEA’s goal of only using renewable or recycled materials by 2030. In addition, the nails used to attach the back panel will be replaced with snap fittings. This change will make assembly easier and disassembly and reassembly possible and create more possibilities for repairs. These improvements will help increase BILLY’s lifetime by making it easier to bring BILLY with you as your life and needs change and pass it on when no longer needed. 

“This is an important change to BILLY that goes hand in hand with the IKEA people and planet positive strategy to design our products circularly from the very beginning. Making it possible to disassemble and reassemble the bookcase, and improve its mobility, will make it easier to bring it with you as your life and needs change. By enabling products and materials to stay in use longer, we solve many customers’ needs and take steps toward reducing our impact on the planet.”, says Jesper Samuelsson. 

BILLY will re-launch in Asia-Pacific, including Australian IKEA stores and online in July 2022, and throughout the rest of the world in January 2024.   

About BILLY:

BILLY was introduced in 1978. It is one of IKEA’s most iconic products and more than 120 million bookcases have been sold since then. It continues to be as relevant today as it was 40 years ago, and it is still one of IKEA’s best-selling products.