Colour code your shared home

Want to co-live happily ever after? Colour code to clarify personal vs. communal. Come see how we used a few colours of EKET cabinets as inspiration to solve some shared home problem areas.

To organise a shared house, use different paint colours for each flatmate inside and outside kitchen cabinets, on pot stands as message boards and behind open bathroom shelves.

An organised hallway with hooks, different-coloured open IKEA EKET cabinets and a TARVA chest of drawers.

Calm the hallway

Use different-coloured open cabinets high and low for hats and shoes. Match the cabinets’ colours to paint individual chest drawers. Hang bags and jackets on hooks. Collect lost-and-founds in a basket. For ‘don’t forget’ stations, paint cork pot stands.

A TARVA chest of drawers being painted a different colour to show who owns it in a shared home.

A FLÅDIS basket being used as a lost-and-found collection spot to organise a shared house.

IKEA SJUDA pot stands painted in different colours being used as ‘don’t forget’ stations in a shared house.

GRUNDTAL shelves, closed wall cabinets and a FABRIKÖR glass-door cabinet organising shared cooking equipment.

Conquer the kitchen

Paint your cabinets inside and out. Leave one for communal staples. Use open shelves and glass-door cabinets to visibly store shared pots, plates, etc. Track chores with DIY tags on painted hangers. A shopping list and money jar cover the basics.

Kitchen utensils kept in a metal container and knobs on the wall holding DIY wooden chore tags.

An IKEA IVAR cabinet, holding kitchen storage jars with dry food, painted to show who owns which side.

A glass VARDAGEN jar from IKEA used as a money box next to a plant in a paper bag.

An organised shared bathroom with different coloured KNAGGLIG wooden boxes, a GRUNDTAL trolley and wall cabinets.

Tame the bathroom

Show ownership with moisture-resistant paint on walls and pine boxes. Store daily toiletries on grab-and-go open shelves. Boxes hold stuff you use less often or you’d rather keep in your bedroom. For toilet paper, save space with an ‘everybody’ trolley.

A hand painting different coloured squares on the wall with a roller.

A GRUNDTAL trolley in a shared bathroom holding toilet paper and towels, etc.

Different coloured wall cabinets in a bathroom containing bottles and shaving equipment and holding a towel and trousers.

We love to see our customers get creative with our products. Go for it! But please note that altering or modifying IKEA products so they can no longer be re-sold or used for their original purpose, means the IKEA commercial guarantees and your right to return the products will be lost.

Made by
Interior designer: Anna Cardell
Photographer: Andrea Papini
Writer: Marissa Frayer

Colour code your shared home

Calm the hallway

Conquer the kitchen

Tame the bathroom

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