If you like to build realistic LEGO houses, you know what a big difference nicely designed furniture can make. It can take a LEGO structure from simply being a toy, to becoming a sophisticated and realistic miniature model. Most official LEGO sets come with simple furniture pieces, however there are some LEGO themes that consistently feature more detailed interiors. If you need inspiration for furniture design, the LEGO Modular Buildings and the LEGO Friends sets are both great resources. 🙂
Assuming that you already have a decent collection of LEGO pieces, you don’t even have to buy any new sets. Just download the instructions for an official LEGO set that has some nice furniture designs and start building! If you are building minifig-scale or slightly larger structures, you don’t need a whole lot of parts; a few plates, a few tiles, some interesting little bits and pieces, and you can make some very impressive furniture.
And, if you would like even more furniture designs, you can find plenty of ideas within the LEGO fan community. One LEGO fan even took it as far as putting together a whole LEGO furniture catalog, mimicking the look and feel of a real-life IKEA catalog. The JOHN Collection by LEGO fan and graphic designer William Dalton (a.k.a. Johŋ), is a real labor of love that took a year and a half of building, photographing, and graphic design. The end result is a tastefully presented faux IKEA catalog with 18 pages and over one hundred LEGO furniture pieces. Johŋ even had the catalog printed!
The JOHN Collection includes everything from home office furniture, bedroom furniture, kitchen and bathroom décor, garage organizers, commercial furniture, and more. They are all presented in the style of real-life furniture collections with an introduction, creative names for the furniture pieces, and prices in Danish Kroner. In this article I have included some of the pages for your viewing pleasure, and you can also visit Johŋ’s Flickr gallery to view the larger versions, and even more designs.
Really nicely done catalog, isn’t it? I particularly like the tastefully photographed presentation pictures for each of the living spaces. And, of course, the furniture designs are really creative as well, taking advantage of the interesting shapes and textures of some of the smallest LEGO elements. If you would like to use some of these designs in your own LEGO buildings, the pictures are large enough that you should be able out the pieces used and how they were built. If you get stuck, you can ask Johŋ via his flickr gallery. And if you need even further ideas, The LEGO Neighborhood Book and The LEGO Ideas Book series have some really nice furniture designs.
What do you think? Do you like making interesting LEGO furniture pieces? And how do you like the ones featured here? Are there any other designs that you really like? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉
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