Here’s how an Ikea designer renovated an 1800s home that had no water or electricity. Friso Wiersma never thought he would end up working for Ikea. “I have a lot of skepticism towards mass production, although I find it fascinating,” he says, “For my graduate project, I asked myself the question: what would I create if I was an Ikea designer? And my response was quite critical!” Then a year later, he got a call from the company. “They said, ‘Hey, we heard you like to be critical of us. How about you come and be critical over here in Sweden?’” Friso and his partner, artist marehilstra, were living in a tiny apartment in Amsterdam at the time and missed living in nature. “We fell in love with the small community there,” Mare explains. They moved in 2018 and quickly found the house they wanted to live in—a wooden structure from the 1830s, built into the landscape and without running water or electricity. The other problem? The home wasn’t for sale. “That was disappointing,” Mare laughs, “...