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The icon that stands firm, for 35 years and counting

After more than 30 years in the IKEA range, it’s one of the most used bags in the world. Today, millions of the tote bags are sold around the world every year, and they often have a long life. No one could have foreseen just how popular it would be – except for Ingvar. But perhaps that’s not so surprising. FRAKTA is based on the same principles that guide all of IKEA – the idea that function, quality, good design and sustainability should not just be for the wealthy.

Discover the FRAKTA Series

The clock to make the time pass by

The IKEA PS table and wall clock was part of a design project initiated by IKEA during the first half of the 1990s. The collection would be a tribute to the traditional Scandinavian style, and was in stark contrast to the more extravagant, kitschy design of the 1980s. The collection was named IKEA PS, as it was a kind of post script to the standard range.

The clock, which came in several colours and could also be used for small storage, became one of the stars of the collection. Thomas Eriksson had been inspired by the top section of old-fashioned floor clocks, but the expression in the IKEA PS one was modern through and through.

Forging perfection, for everyday use

With its classic simple shape, DRAGON has survived all the other cutlery series at IKEA. Since being launched in 1982, this everyday superhero has defended its place in the range for almost 40 years. And this was exactly what silversmith Carl-Gustaf Jahnson wanted when he created DRAGON.

It had to be cutlery that appealed to most people, would go with most things and had a timeless design. The softly rounded cutlery has retained its original shape over the years, even though it has been manufactured for IKEA at many different places around the world.

Furniture for children, by children

Architect Morten Kjelstrup and fashion designer Allan Østgaard understood that children’s furniture had to be completely different to adult’s furniture. It not only has to have different proportions, it also has to be lighter and more stable. The design should fit in with children’s imagination, rather than their parents’ tastes. The world of comic strips was an important source of inspiration, and the designers’ children were often consultants when MAMMUT was being developed.

MAMMUT was originally made in solid wood, particleboard and had polystyrene legs. This made the furniture quite heavy, which made it difficult for children to handle. After a few years of further development, since 1999 the series has been made entirely out of UV-resistant plastic. This made the furniture lighter, and it could be used both outdoors and in.

MAMMUT was launched across a whole spread in the 1994 IKEA catalogue, but is a series under constant development. Every year it undergoes meticulous safety tests. And it costs less today than it did when it was launched.

The image is from the 2003 IKEA Catalogue.

Household name and enduring style icon

The KLIPPAN sofa has been a hit since it launched more than 40 years ago; and for good reason. Loved for its sturdy, no-nonsense design and accessible price; its removable covers in patterns and colours galore have also kept it fresh and in favour, year after year.

Discover the NYTILLVERKAD Collection

The glowing globe

David Wahl was an industrial designer before joining IKEA in 2010. David Wahl designed another three products for the IKEA PS collection 2014. He remembers it as a long and challenging design process: “At IKEA we have a concept called Democratic Design, which every product has to live up to in terms of form, function, sustainability, quality and price. It’s a way of making sure we always offer high-quality design for the many people.”

David quickly came up with the pendant lamp’s beautiful form, but it took a lot of hard work to meet the other demands of Democratic Design, including the low price.

Efficient design for an organised bedroom

“The team and I developed the chest of drawers with a furniture factory in Poland. The idea was originally sketched out on a napkin, which the engineer made into a simple drawing. The drawing was sent to the factory, which made a prototype, and we then went to Poland to finish it on site. It was a quick and efficient process.”

-Thomas Lundin, former product developer, IKEA of Sweden

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA, loved the fact that MALM came in so many different styles, as customers could choose their own combination of knobs and finish. Not adding the knobs from the start also cut costs. Due to the drawers’ design, they were easy to open and close smoothly in any case.

Making everyday life safer and better, for the little ones

UNESCO proclaimed 1979 as the International Year of the Child, and in the same year IKEA launched a new child safety programme under the name PATRULL. It was a series of products that would make life at home safer for children. PATRULL was about preventing everything from scratches and bruises to more serious accidents.

In the 1990s, a stool was developed by designers Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg, alongside experts in plastics at IKEA. The stool entered the IKEA range in March 1998 and was named PATRULL. It was stabler and more durable than the previous stools, and the integrated anti-slip dots and feet prevented the stool from moving on the floor, and the child from slipping. The PATRULL stool was awarded Excellent Swedish Design in 1998, and premiered in the 2000 IKEA catalogue. Now, the updated version is still being sold, under the name BOLMEN.
See the BOLMEN Series

Something to make homework more fun

With its forward-facing ‘ears’, the KRUX lamp looks like a curious creature, lighting up the children’s room with a perfect light for drawing or building. Both the arm and the head can be adjusted, and the wall lamp version also has a built-in dimmer. KRUX was given its playful design by designer Monika Mulder.

A lamp for the children’s room must, of course, be designed with the highest level of child safety. KRUX has undergone some of the world’s toughest safety tests. The lamps have built-in LED light sources and no sharp edges, small parts, openings or hooks.

An image of life under the sea, from a child’s eyes

In the Kids Lab, adults in design and development related roles at IKEA get the chance to show and discuss prototypes with different groups of small experts for invaluable feedback. At an even earlier stage, bringing kids into the process involves asking a designated panel of experts aged 8 to 14 to share their thoughts on things, big and small.

Like what their favourite ocean animals are, what concerns they may have for them, and what stories they imagine around them. Which ultimately inspired the direction of the ocean-themed BLÅVINGAD toy collection; and the message it carries. Insights and feedback from children tend to be the key that unlocks much in the process. For BLÅVINGAD, it was the panel’s concern for the ocean that sparked ideas that would eventually flow into everything from game and character development to material choices.

Something new, something red

When Danish designer Nicholai Wiig Hansen created the IKEA PS low metal cabinet, he had two sources of inspiration. Many of his friends in Copenhagen liked to furnish using old metal lockers from changing rooms, but Nicholai felt these were too narrow to work really well in a home. He came to think of a sideboard, the low, traditional piece of furniture that was so popular in Danish design. Perhaps the two could be combined to make a good sideboard out of metal?

The second edition of the IKEA PS collection was largely manufactured at factories in Poland. The project manager for IKEA PS, Lars Dafnäs, and the head of design at the time, Lars Engman, found a Polish factory that made metal cabinets for the military. They brought back a prototype for a sideboard, but Nicholai was not completely happy with the quality. He felt it was too much of a ‘metal box’ and that the assembly could be improved. A DJ friend had also given him the idea of making the cabinet suitable for LPs, with holes in the rear section for leads and cables. He also wanted the cabinet to be red, something that met with suspicion from IKEA. But Nicholai stuck to his guns and finally got his way, and the red cabinet was an immediate sales success. In 2001 it also received the international design prize, Red Dot Award. In 2021 IKEA still sells the cabinet, and it costs less now than it did on launch 21 years ago.

Scandinavia, the “comeback kid”

Eighteen young Scandinavian designers created a collection with a strong, simple profile that would follow in the Scandinavian design tradition. It was called IKEA PS, as it was a kind of post script or addendum to the standard range. At the 1995 furniture fair in Milan, IKEA PS was presented under the theme of Democratic Design. The term summarised the company’s ambition to create products of good design and function, at low prices.

The first IKEA PS collection was very well received. New collections have since returned regularly. Over the years, both Swedish and international designers have contributed products under different themes. The common denominator for all the collections has been to develop Scandinavian design and make good design available to the many people.

O ne man's trash is another man's treasure

The CYLINDER candle holders came in various colours and heights, simply yet stylishly designed by sibling designers Knut Hagberg and Marianne Hagberg. They got the idea for the candle holders when they visited a supplier who manufactured metal furniture. There was a lot of leftover material, so Knut and Marianne began to ponder.

The metal scrap in the factory was transformed, based on the siblings’ sketches, into simple, cylindrical candle holders. They were sold in three different sizes and were first introduced in the 1982 IKEA catalogue under the apt name CYLINDER, available in colours such as white, red and silver.

The cylindrical candle holders have been re-released at IKEA several times, including under the name TYNGDKRAFT. The latest edition was released in 2023, in discreet purple, clear blue, green and bright orange, with the new name TUVKORNELL in the NYTILLVERKAD collection.

Discover the NYTILLVERKAD Collection

A flexible desk chair; designed with the home office in mind

“Lots of people have their desks in their living room or hallway, so we wanted to make a chair with a homey feel that would blend in with the rest of the furniture. We chose a simple, airy shape and added the practical properties that a chair needs. The handle at the back makes it easy to move around, which is perfect as it fits anywhere in the home!”

- Sebastian Holmbäck and Ulrik Nordentoft, IKEA of Sweden

The sweetest form of food

The DUKTIG play kitchen was a miniature version of the VÄRDE kitchen series from back in 1998. Designer Mikael Warnhammar shrunk his own kitchen design down into a children’s version that was ideal for the DUKTIG children’s series, which had been around since the launch of Children’s IKEA in 1998. The DUKTIG series was made to provide children with props and encourage role play around life at home, and was launched with the new Children’s IKEA department. The DUKTIG play kitchen joined the range in 2007 and was presented in the IKEA catalogue in 2011.

How low can the price go?

Vivianne Sjölin, the range coordinator at IKEA, thought that IKEA had too many big, heavy tables made of wood, metal and glass. Vivianne wanted to see nice, little, colourful tables that were easy to place with flexible use, and that customers might buy on impulse, almost like a souvenir.

Back home in Älmhult, Jan Hellzén and Tomas Paulsson were in the samples room talking about tables when Ingvar Kamprad stopped by, pointed at the table and asked the price. Tomas and Jan improvised a price of 298 kronor. Ingvar didn’t like the price, so he suggested that it could be made out of board-on-frame, the same technique as interior doors, and it can’t cost more than 75 kronor. Tomas was familiar with board-on-frame; so when Jan visited the factory, and product development began in earnest.

In 1979, the table came into the range and the price was 78 kronor. LACK was launched in the 1981 catalogue, by which time the price had gone up to 89 kronor. Everyone was happy; apart from Ingvar, who thought the table was far too expensive.

You can still buy the LACK table at IKEA, and at a lower price than the original. Ever cost-conscious, Ingvar Kamprad would probably have been happy with that.

The image is from the 1985 IKEA Catalogue that says: “The table for all your rooms.”

The right light to focus on the important things

When designer Lennart Centervall designed the FOTO floor lamp, he was clearly inspired by the lighting in photography studios. His idea was to create a lamp that provided directed lighting, ideal for reading or needlework. The shade was height adjustable and rotatable, so the lamp could be pointed in any direction.

Lennart had the same idea about a directed light when he designed a pendant version of FOTO. The lamp was described as “focus lighting for plants or a music centre, for example” when it was presented for the first time in the 1979 IKEA catalogue.

The dish that started it all

IKEA soon discovered that the same approach could be applied to other products – and the BANG mug was the first. The mug sold very well, but it soon required some product development. Since the mug was not stackable, it took up too much space in distribution and sales. A new model of BANG was developed, but the function and design were not as good as before, and it was nowhere near as popular with customers. After four years it was replaced by the TROFÉ mug, which was stackable and looked good. It is still sold at IKEA, only under the name FÄRGRIK.

The dish that started it all

Most people who have visited an IKEA store are familiar with the hot dog. It began being sold at stores in the late 1980s, and Ingvar Kamprad wanted the hot dog to be half the price of one in town. Customers should be amazed at how cheap the hot dog was, and also how delicious. It was a success.

IKEA soon discovered that the same approach could be applied to other products – and the BANG mug was the first. The mug sold very well, but it soon required some product development. Since the mug was not stackable, it took up too much space in distribution and sales. A new model of BANG was developed, but the function and design were not as good as before, and it was nowhere near as popular with customers. After four years it was replaced by the TROFÉ mug, which was stackable and looked good. It is still sold at IKEA, only under the name FÄRGRIK.