IKEA has made a bold design move that could affect the safety of all furniture across the UK

IKEA has announced that they're making its new safety innovation, Anchor and Unlock, available to all furniture manufacturers, which reduces the risk of furniture tip-over accidents.

Whether you keep the flatpack cult classics as they are, or choose to spruce them up with an IKEA hack or two, it's no secret that the Swedish retailer is no stranger to our homes. However, as much as we love furnishing our living spaces to keep on top of the latest home decor trends, practising safety is also paramount.

IKEA Anchor and Unlock tip-over safety innovation

If you're a proud owner of IKEA furniture for storing your clothes, then you'll know that the retailer always advocates securing your chest of drawers to a wall.

While many of us may tend to skip that step (guilty) and are okay for the most part, there are some unfortunate incidents where opening all the drawers at once will cause the whole thing to tip over.

Yep, imagine being the unlucky person on the other end of that incident. It does not sound fun – and this is exactly why IKEA is advocating the increased use of safety functions with their furniture.

Now, IKEA is incentivising shoppers to actually secure their furniture to the wall with the introduction of its tip-over safety innovation, Anchor and Unlock.

Only when attached to a wall the unlock mechanism is enabled, allowing you to have multiple drawers opened simultaneously. Otherwise, before the furniture is anchored, only a limited number of drawers can be used at a time. Perhaps this new feature is our way of tapping into the fitted wardrobe trend.

The first globally available IKEA product that includes the new Anchor and Unlock safety feature is the VIHALS chest of drawers, available in both a 4-drawer and 6-drawer version at IKEA.

'VIHALS is one product, with one specific solution – more will come,' says Marie Klaesson, manager for range area bedroom furniture at IKEA of Sweden.

'Within the coming years, we will continue to develop products with innovative stability features for our customers globally. The solution will not be the same for each product, different features and new innovations will be built into new pieces of furniture.'

So, it looks like the cult MALM chest of drawers may have some competition in the realm of wardrobe organisation as IKEA continue down this road of prioritising safety first in home furnishing.

In the meantime, make sure you've got all furniture secured – especially if you have small children or pets running around (or if you're just prone to accidents!)

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IKEA announces patent pledge for Anchor and Unlock

While IKEA prides itself on unique innovations in home furnishing, they've announced its launch of a patent pledge which will allow other furniture manufacturers to adopt the Anchor and Unlock tip-over safety innovation.

'At IKEA, we are proud of our innovation, and we protect it with our patents. But in this case, we hope others will adopt Anchor and Unlock for their products as well,' starts Carl Ervér, patent manager at IKEA of Sweden.

'For us at IKEA, clothing storage furniture stability is not a matter of competition but one of collaboration.'

Onwards, IKEA will continue its ambition to influence change in the furniture industry, hoping to reduce tip-over incidents and support people to live a safer life at home.