Another example of a good Ikea product failed by its inferior supporting product.
We have the Samtid lamp. I like this lamp because it has an industrial design to it. It has cantilevered arms and springs. It reminds me an Artemide Tolomeo floor lamp. The Ikea lamp gives out a nice light, both up and downlight and the shade diffuses the light. We placed it at the corner of our dining area.
Ikea did well to design such a nice lamp but the lampshade simply failed it. Take a look at what happened to our shade.
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| The shade warped out of shape. |
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| The view inside. The 3-spoke fitting is the only thing holding it in shape. |
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| I tried to fix it but the plastic shade crumbled further. |
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| Another view of the shade. |
I came across this at my trip to Ikea with The Wife today. The Lobbo shade. The displayed set looks the same as the Samtid shade. At SGD6.90, why not?
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| The 3-spoke fitting, same as the Samtid. |
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| It is connected the same as the original Samtid shade |
The 3-spoke fitting is slight longer than the Samtid. Maybe someone in their Quality Control (QC) unit realised that the heat from the lightbulb might have contributed to the shade being warped out of shape.
Original Samtid spoke on top. You can see the length difference.
The Lobbo fitting is on the left and the original Samtid is the right.
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| The assembly is quite straightforward. Roll the shade into place and screw the fitting in. |
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| Before (left) and after. |
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| Insert it back to the lamp. |
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| Screw the bulb back. |
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| A nice light. |
Speaking of similar lamps, another Ikea lamp that reminds me of a designer lamp is the Ikea Stockholm floor lamp (left). Does it look similar in design to the AJ Floor lamp? You can say the Ikea designers might have taken 'inspiration' from the the AJ Floor lamp. The Ikea lamp costs SGD299 but the AJ Floor is in the thousands.
Please view our other Ikea related items and project on this blog
1) Ikea Orgel Table Lamp here. Ideas to replace the original lampshade.
2) Ikea Ljusa Hang Powered Flashlight here. No more batteries.
3) Ikea Sansad Table here. How to install.
4) Ikea Stuva Wordrobe for the kids, here.
Thanks for your research. This helped me for my two SAMTIDs (from only 2009) to get back into shape. Comforting to know that something fits before you drive off to the nearest IKEA. The LÖBBO was less than 10 Euro a piece.
ReplyDeleteEibergen, Netherlands; september 2012.
Hi HanzChristian,
DeleteThank you for your comments and visiting my blog. I am glad that my posting on the Samtid lamp was able to help you. I love the Samtid lamp. It has a very nice design to it.
Do drop by again and let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.
I bought 3 Samtid lamps 6 years ago. One lampshade crumbled. I naively thought that Ikea would have an easy replacement for such a well designed reading lamp. When I could not find a replacement shade online, I wrote to their service department, and their reply for not having a replacement:"Unfortunately Ikea is unable to offer replacement component parts...almost all of our home furnishings and accessories are manufactured by multiple global supply partners and packaged, shipped and sold... as whole and finished products." Huh? A flat piece of polypropylene cannot be sold as a replacement shade in their shade dept.? They would make money on this! My love affair with Ikea is OVER!
ReplyDeletePS Thanks for your solution! Iam on it.
ReplyDeleteHi Liuda,
DeleteThank you for your comments. I am glad that my blog piece was able to give you ideas on replacing the lampshade. I agree with you that Ikea could have done a better job for its replacement parts.
Do let me know how yours turn out and if I can help in anyway.
I'm glad I found your blog. It gave me direction to replaced the shades for my two old Samtid lamps. One shade looks just as your first photos does. It is the one that is rarely used but does get exposed to afternoon sun. The other one was going.
ReplyDeleteThe old bases were a little different from what you have pictured. They were white colored with a slightly different ring size where the bulb assembly is. As is, the Lobbo shade support ring was to large for the plastic bulb assembly. The snap in plastic adaptor was too small.
I sawed off the supports from the old Samtid lamps and hot glued the remaining "ring" to the base of the Lobbo shade support. The plastic socket drew together parts hold it all together in any even to compression. I assembled everything together as you would expect. It works well.
Hi Edward,
DeleteI am not surprised by the variation of the lampshade that is used for this lamp.
The tip that you have shared is most useful. Thank you for sharing and dropping by.