> Quick view: Every Saturday and Sunday until 1 November 2026, all four IKEA stores in Malaysia are running free activities under the Sorted Lah! Open House banner. Most of them are walk-in: a vinyl lounge and kids' drawing corner all day, live local acts on two Saturday evenings, and a free hour with interior designers on Sunday 25 October. The headline team escape game needs a booking, and when we checked on 14 October every listed slot was full.

*Image: IKEA Malaysia*

What IKEA is putting on

IKEA describes the Open House as "play, design, music, books and family activities throughout the IKEA store", spread over four weekends from 10 October. Nothing on the campaign page carries a ticket price, and none of it needs a purchase. Here is the full line-up as published on ikea.com/my, with what is still ahead of you as of 14 October.

The walk-in activities (no booking needed)

  • The Listening Lounge, every Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm, all stores. Pick a record from a vinyl selection and listen in a furnished IKEA living room.
  • Little Designers, every Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm, all stores. Children draw and colour a room of their own.
  • Say Hej!, every Saturday and Sunday at 12pm, 2pm, 6pm and 8pm, all stores. A meet-and-greet and photo with IKEA's mascot characters.
  • The Great Book Club, Saturday 24 and 31 October, 12pm to 2pm, all stores. A shelf curated by local book clubs and reading groups.
  • Sound Check live music, Saturday 17 October, 6pm: lucidrari (Damansara), Zynakal (Cheras), Bunga (Tebrau), CLAUDIA (Batu Kawan).
  • Sound Check live music, Saturday 31 October, 6pm: ALYPH (Damansara), Midnight Fusic (Cheras), Najwa Latif (Tebrau), FUGŌ (Batu Kawan).
  • The Design Table, Sunday 25 October, 2pm to 3pm. Bring a photo of a corner at home and sit down with a local interior designer and IKEA's own design staff. The pairings are Kashfi Emir (Damansara), Adrien Kent (Cheras), Shin Chang (Tebrau) and Aaput (Batu Kawan). The first session on 11 October has already passed.

The Sorting Escape, and the RM800 prize

The centrepiece is a 30-minute team game with four hands-on rounds: Find It, Sort It, Pack It and Solve It. Each round earns a key, and four keys open the Final Unlock (styled as "the last wardrobe"). It runs 12pm to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays at all four stores.

Teams need at least 2 and at most 6 players, and you book a slot online through IKEA's booking page (linked from the campaign page). Fast teams go onto a King of Storage leaderboard. IKEA says the top spot wins "a set of IKEA Storage heroes", a bookcase and chest of drawers worth up to RM800.

The booking problem. We walked the booking tool on the morning of 14 October. At Damansara, Cheras, Tebrau and Batu Kawan, Saturday 17, Sunday 18, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October all showed "Fully booked". The last weekend, 31 October and 1 November, did not appear in the tool at all. IKEA does not say whether more slots will be released or whether walk-ins are taken on the day, so check the booking page again before you plan around it.

Who it suits, and who can skip it

Worth the trip: families with primary-school kids, since the drawing corner, mascot sessions and vinyl lounge run all day and cost nothing. It also suits anyone about to furnish a new place, because the free Design Table hour on 25 October is the kind of advice interior firms usually charge a consultation fee for. Fans of any of the Sound Check acts get a free close-up gig.

Probably skip: anyone going only for the escape game or the RM800 prize. With every listed slot full, there is a real chance you will not get to play, and you cannot reach the leaderboard without playing.

Planning a visit: worked examples

  • Sunday 25 October, family of four at IKEA Cheras: arrive around 1pm, put the kids at Little Designers, take a photo of your problem corner to the Design Table at 2pm, catch the 2pm Say Hej! session afterwards. Spend: RM0 on activities. Food is separate and at normal prices.
  • Saturday 31 October, couple at IKEA Tebrau: book club from 12pm, Listening Lounge in the afternoon, then Najwa Latif at 6pm. This is the busiest Saturday of the run, since book club and live music both fall on it, so expect a crowd and a full car park in the evening.

Fine print that trips people up

  • Weekends only. None of these activities runs on weekdays, and there are no dated sessions on Sunday 1 November, the last day of the run.
  • Times differ by activity. The escape game stops at 6pm, while the lounge and drawing corner run to 10pm.
  • The design hour is one hour per store, once. With one designer per store for 60 minutes, not everyone in the queue will get a long session. Bring one clear photo and one specific question.
  • No purchase discount is attached. This is an activity campaign, not a sale. Prices in the store and restaurant are the usual ones.

Details from IKEA Malaysia's Sorted Lah! Open House page and its Sorting Escape booking tool, both read on 14 October 2026.