Xbox controller shapes become furniture in IKEA’s nine-piece YXSTABY collection
IKEA AND XBOX SCALE UP THE THUMBSTICK
There is a stool in IKEA and Xbox’s new YXSTABY collection that looks immediately familiar. Its seat is an enormous Xbox thumbstick, developed from the controller’s original 3D files and enlarged until something normally moved with one finger can support a whole person.
IKEA designer David Wahl worked with Xbox’s device team to get the curve and balance right while keeping the original grip texture and the slight movement of the control. ‘It even moves the way a thumbstick does, so it tilts with you while you play,‘ he says.
Wahl is a lifelong gamer, and even queued overnight for the first Xbox console 25 years ago, so he’s familiar with these shapes. They appear throughout YXSTABY at different scales. The controller’s D-pad becomes a cushion, while another version is made from shiny stainless steel and used as a platter. A mirrored display box gives controllers and collectibles a place of their own. Some references are obvious from across the room, but others take a second look.
images © IKEA
GAMING HAS MOVED AROUND THE HOUSE
The collection began with a change IKEA and Xbox had both been watching for some time. At home, gaming can go on wherever there’s a screen and somewhere to sit. This can be anywhere from the sofa to the dining table.
‘How people play at home has shifted, and it is as much about relaxing and connecting with others as it is about performing,‘ says Philip Dilé, Product Design Developer at IKEA of Sweden. Thus, the furniture changes around the player too.
Designers from the two companies visited homes where gaming already shares space with everything else happening around it, paying attention to the small inconveniences that come with moving equipment through a room. One of their answers is a rolling TV stand, the first IKEA has developed, with storage for gaming gear built into the back. The screen can follow the player across the house and move away again afterward. A portable toolbox keeps controllers and cables together, while its closed lid becomes a laptop stand.
IKEA’s first rolling TV stand moves the screen between different spaces in the home
FROM THE SCREEN TO THE FURNITURE AROUND IT
‘At Xbox, we think a lot about what helps players feel immersed in a game,‘ says Carl Ledbetter, Head of Design at Xbox. ‘The hardware is an important part of that, but so is the world you create around it.‘
For YXSTABY, this world extends into fairly ordinary pieces of furniture. A rolling side table gives a controller somewhere to land beside the sofa and hides charging space behind sliding doors. The monitor stand lifts one or two screens and leaves room beneath for equipment.
The collection avoids the aggressive visual language that has long followed gaming furniture. White, black, and beige dominate, with green used around pockets and compartments made for equipment. The objects can sit among furniture people already own without asking the entire room to announce what happens there. Then the thumbstick stool comes along and has a little more fun with it. YXSTABY was recently unveiled at Gamescom and will arrive at IKEA stores and online from October 1st, 2026.
Xbox’s directional pad becomes a cushion within the YXSTABY collection
a portable toolbox stores gaming equipment beneath a lid that doubles as a laptop stand
the thumbstick stool was developed using original Xbox controller 3D files
nine pieces are developed for gaming across living rooms and other shared spaces
the D-pad geometry also appears as a decorative platter made from reflective stainless steel
green details identify pockets and compartments for controllers and other gaming equipment
project info:
name: YXSTABY
release: October 1st, 2026
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