Smart home content creator Sune H. Kuntz recently spotted the highly anticipated IKEA VARMBLIXT table/wall lamp on store shelves over the weekend. This early appearance suggests that a wider availability is currently rolling out across European IKEA locations, well ahead of its officially scheduled April release date.
The VARMBLIXT Matter lamp is part of a massive new smart home wave from the Swedish furniture giant. While IKEA has recently faced some community discussions regarding connectivity issues with its new Matter and Thread devices, the company is aggressively pushing forward to bring high-end, Matter-compatible designs to the mass market. This strategy aims to democratize smart home technology by embedding advanced networking directly into iconic household furnishings.
A smart upgrade
Designed in collaboration with Sabine Marcelis, the original VARMBLIXT lamp featured a distinctive donut shape and an amber finish. The new smart version maintains this physical design while introducing significant hardware revision. Instead of the smooth yellow finish found on the original model, the Matter version features a matte white frosted glass exterior.
This design choice allows the lamp to glow a wide spectrum of colors rather than being locked to a single warm hue. The lighting engine is designed to create smooth, gradual shifts between colors, allowing the atmosphere of a room to change without sudden, jarring transitions.
According to the product description, the built-in light source boasts a lifespan of approximately 25,000 hours, which translates to about 20 years of typical daily use (3 hours). Sized at 12 × 12 × 30 cm, the lamp offers 180 lm of brightness with a power consumption of 3.4 W.
Assembly guides indicate that it uses a universal DC power supply commonly found in other IKEA devices. This standardized power approach opens up the possibility for creative users to modify and power multiple units together, creating the kind of illuminated wall art seen in official IKEA promotional photos.
The wrapping box and product label posted by Sune also show that the lamp (article number 706.129.40) has a G energy rating. Like other products in this new Matter batch, the wrapping box displays only the IKEA Home Smart and Matter badges. This is part of an ongoing effort to educate the market and help customers move away from directly seeking a “Work With” badge
Under the hood with Thread and Zigbee
This new lighting product is built on the open Matter standard and communicates via low-power Thread mesh networking. To fully utilize its smart capabilities across major platforms like Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, or Samsung SmartThings, you will need a compatible “Thread Border Router” on their local network. For users staying entirely within the brand ecosystem, the IKEA DIRIGERA hub fulfills this network requirement.
The lamp comes bundled with a BILRESA remote control, which is powered by two standard AAA batteries. You can utilize this remote to adjust brightness and cycle through preset colors immediately out of the box. If a user does not have a smart home hub set up yet, they can use the “Zigbee Light Link” feature to pair the remote directly to the VARMBLIXT lamp by simply long-pressing the button within proximity.
More to expect from IKEA
It is common practice for physical IKEA stores to stock new inventory a month or two before the official global launch, making a March retail appearance highly logical for an April product lineup.
Alongside the VARMBLIXT lamp, the new indoor GRILLPLATS smart plug has also begun appearing on the IKEA online store. Designed with a slim profile, so multiple units can be placed side by side on a wall outlet, the plug features a clear Matter logo on its packaging and includes energy monitoring capabilities.
The VARMBLIXT LED table/wall lamp is currently priced at 699 Swedish krona (approximately $77), representing a modest increase over the non-smart version (599 Swedish krona). It is available in certain IKEA stores, including Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Finland, and Australia.
The GRILLPLATS plug is priced at 99 Swedish krona ($11), while a starter bundle including the plug and a BILRESA button costs roughly $16. In the coming weeks, we should also see the release of the TOFSMYGGA outdoor smart plug and the pendant version of the smart VARMBLIXT lamp.
(Source: Sune H. Kuntz, IKEA; Image: Sune H. Kuntz, IKEA, Matter Alpha)
