Two decor capsules land in the high street almost on the same day. One marks thirty years, the other tells the tale of a giraffe. Here is what we look at with a careful eye, and what we set aside without regret.
May 2026 is a busy month for accessible decoration. On 14 May, IKEA unveiled in store the tenth edition of its laboratory collection IKEA PS, thirty years after the first. Five days later, on 19 May, Monoprix put on the shelves the capsule collaboration signed by Louis Barthélemy, the third highlight of its Créateurs Spring-Summer 2026 season. Two very different gestures, two ways of inviting design into the home without going through a gallery.
At Maison Maray, we look at these releases with the same method we apply to a project, without excitement, without rejection. A capsule is an object of fashion. Read carefully, however, it also points to a direction, a climate, sometimes a material that deserves a closer look. Here is our reading of both.
IKEA PS 2026, ten years of laboratory.
IKEA PS holds a place apart within the Swedish house. Launched in 1995, the series is conceived as a testing ground, a collection that takes risks where the others stay cautious. For its thirtieth anniversary, the Playful Functionality edition gathers forty-four pieces designed by a dozen designers, among them Henrik Preutz, Mikael Axelsson, Maria Vinka and Lex Pott.
The common thread is claimed from the title onwards, function as play. An inflatable armchair dressed in a green textile, a rocking bench in solid wood, a chair that hangs on the wall like an object of decoration, a secret drawer that opens on both sides of a table to turn a meal into a game of cards, and a reissue of the 1995 PS clock in folded tube like a periscope. The range wants to amuse, and it owns the fact.
Available in store since 14 May, the collection will arrive online from 1 June. This is consistent with the philosophy of the series, see the object in the flesh before bringing it home, because a chair that inflates is not bought in miniature on a product grid.
“A well-read capsule points to a climate, sometimes a material that deserves a closer look.”
Louis Barthélemy x Monoprix, the diplomat giraffe.
The gesture lies elsewhere. Louis Barthélemy, a French artist who lives between Cairo and Paris, has built his collection around a narrative, that of Zarafa, the giraffe offered in 1827 by the Pasha of Egypt to the King of France, who crossed the Mediterranean and then half of the country on foot to reach the Jardin des Plantes. A story of diplomatic gift, of patience, of walking.
From that fable comes a collection of tableware, household linen, small furniture and decorative objects. A metal chair with a 1950s balcony feel, a lacquered tray, a sun lounger, a lamp, hat boxes, glassware and crockery, all marked with palm fronds, suns and, of course, giraffes. The colours are solar, the graphic hand assured. Part of the textile range is produced in partnership with Creative Handicrafts, a social enterprise based in Mumbai.
The collection has been in store and online since 19 May. Limited volumes, as with every Monoprix collaboration, which turns the purchase into a quick gesture, almost editorial. Three more capsules will follow this spring, but this one is likely to be the most visual of them.
What we keep.
- The IKEA PS rocking bench, in solid wood, no plastic, no graphic overlay. An object built to last, one that will welcome patina, that can be repaired. A good piece for an entrance hall, or a seat for a child's bedroom that will grow with them.
- The hand-blown glassware from the IKEA PS collection. Glassblowing is a demanding craft, and seeing it at this price remains an event. To be looked at in person, the irregularity of blown glass does not show in a photograph.
- The Louis Barthélemy lacquered tray. Set on a dark sideboard, on a travertine or a veined marble, it becomes a precise point of colour without overloading the scene. The pattern is dense but the piece is small, the ratio is right.
- The table linen from the Monoprix capsule. A tablecloth, two napkins, laid on a pale marble table, are enough to give a summer dinner a character, without long commitment.
What we leave behind.
- The inflatable IKEA PS armchair. Pretty in a photograph, fragile in use, and at odds with the idea of duration we defend. An object of communication, not an object of the home.
- The heavily printed pieces of the Barthélemy capsule, the ones meant to be worn on a wall or a floor. A pattern this assertive, in large quantity, tires the eye quickly. Better to contain it to a small format, a cushion, a tea towel, a tray, and let the room breathe around it.
- The periscope clock. A beautiful museum object, but difficult to slot into a real interior without it becoming the only subject on the wall.
Why we cover it.
Maison Maray is not a high-street house. But part of our work consists in choosing, in composing, in blending one-of-a-kind pieces with accessible objects. A well-selected IKEA capsule can hold its place in a Haussmannian apartment, provided one knows which piece to keep and which to set aside. A Monoprix collaboration can carry a summer table without ever looking cheap, if it is laid on the right material, in the right light.
The mistake is to buy the whole capsule, out of enthusiasm. The right practice is to isolate one or two pieces from it, and to entrust them with a precise role in the room. The rest will rest on the materials we choose elsewhere, travertine, walnut, brushed brass, undyed linen. The capsule then becomes an accent, not a stage set.
See you next Wednesday for the next page of the journal, most likely on the Materials side.
