IKEA and XBOX Made Furniture Out of a Controller
XBOX/IKEA
Gaming setups have always been a compromise. A monitor balanced on a desk that was never meant to hold one. Cables snaking behind the couch like they're hiding from something. A "gaming chair" that looks like it belongs in a cockpit, not a living room. IKEA and Xbox looked at that mess and decided the real problem was never the games — it was the furniture pretending gaming doesn't happen at home.
Enter YXSTABY, a nine-piece collection unveiled at Gamescom this month and built the way IKEA builds everything: one designer from each side, working from a shared brief instead of a logo slap. IKEA brought 80-plus years of knowing how people actually live in small spaces. Xbox brought 25 years of knowing how people actually play in them. The result skips the neon-and-RGB gamer aesthetic entirely and goes Scandinavian instead — white, black, and beige, with the kind of green accents that mark "storage" rather than "look at me."
The name is the first clue this was designed by people paying attention: YXSTABY spells out the four face buttons on an Xbox controller. The rest of the collection follows that same logic — form borrowed straight from the hardware, function borrowed straight from how a controller actually gets used, dropped, and lost under a couch cushion.
The lineup:
Rolling TV stand — IKEA's first — with gear storage built into the back, so the console lives behind the screen instead of on top of a stack of old game cases.
Toolbox with slots for controllers and cables and a lid that doubles as a laptop stand, because gaming and everything-else-in-your-life happen in the same room now.
Rolling side table with sliding doors that hide your devices while they charge.
Monitor stand, built for one or two screens, with built-in storage and hooks for headsets and accessories.
Thumbstick stool — pulled directly from Xbox's original controller 3D files — that tilts with you instead of sitting there like furniture usually does.
Gaming lounge chair with side pockets sized for a controller, not a magazine.
A D-pad cushion, a mirrored display box for controllers you're too attached to put away, and a decorative steel platter, because even a snack tray deserves a little design.
Hidden symbols and Easter eggs are tucked throughout, which tracks — this is a collection made by people who understand that the best gaming setups reward a second look. As one of the designers put it, how people play at home has changed: it's as much about relaxing and connecting with others as it is about performing. That's the whole apt24b thesis, just said with a controller in hand instead of a throw blanket.
YXSTABY starts rolling into IKEA stores and online this fall, with availability varying by market — so if it's not live near you on day one, it's coming. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but if it's IKEA, the odds are good your setup gets an upgrade for less than one triple-A game.
Your console has been living out of a cardboard box under the TV for years. It finally gets a home.