The GUIDE shelving unit with its wire sides and coloured shelf edges fit nicely into the urban furnishing style of the 1980s. The shelving unit came about as a cousin to the modern MOMENT sofa, which had a steel mesh underframe inspired by shopping trolleys.
The product manager for bookcases at IKEA, Niels Mossbeck, wanted to make a bookcase or shelving unit that went with the sofa. He and designer Niels Gammelgard developed a construction that was based on the same technique and material as for the legs of the MOMENT sofa.
The shelving unit’s sides, which looked like ladders, were made 170 cm high and the shelves were 170 cm long, so it could all be packed and distributed efficiently and rationally. The sides were made at the same factory as the MOMENT sofa. The shelves were made at a factory that made laminate boards on an automated production line. Niels Gammelgaard discovered that the machines regularly needed refilling with new material for a new batch. This meant that the colour of laminate could be changed without extra costs! The shelves were white on one side and anthracite grey on the other, which meant they were reversible.
The edges were in four different colours: red, blue, yellow and green. GUIDE was presented in the 1985 IKEA catalogue alongside its stablemate, the MOMENT sofa. It ended up spending four years in the IKEA catalogue.
