IKEA | A Spotlight Series
For decades, IKEA has been the punchline of easy jokes – from couples squabbling over flat-pack instructions to tired jabs about meatball ingredients. But behind the memes is a company that’s redefined what good, accessible design can be. Born originally as a small mail-order business in 1943, IKEA didn’t just sell furniture – it changed the way people bought it. The arrival of flat-pack shipping in the 1950s didn’t just slash costs; it reshaped global logistics and brought modern, functional design into reach for millions.
Let me put on my glasses for a second and throw down some factoids: Today, IKEA’s footprint spans 479 stores in 62 countries, and in 2020 was ranked as the world’s seventh most valuable retailer, with a brand valuation approaching $19 billion. IKEA operates on a scale that’s almost hard to wrap your head around. It’s often said that the company accounts for roughly one percent of the world’s commercial wood use, which is a staggering figure that gives you a sense of just how massive their production really is. Every year, hundreds of millions of products leave their factories and warehouses for homes around the world. And yet, nearly all that wood – over ninety-five percent by their own reporting – now comes from either recycled or FSC-certified sources.
Even with that kind of scale, IKEA has kept a strong focus on accessible, well-considered design, which is something you don’t often see from other mass-market furniture and home-goods brands.
Some of its creations have reached true cultural icon status. The Billy bookcase, on sale since 1979, has moved more than 140 million units worldwide. The Poäng chair has found its way into 30 million homes (including mine) since 1992. Both remain in production, largely unchanged in their essence – a testament to design that endures. Recently, IKEA went so far as to lean into this design confidence with the Nytillverkad collection, a tribute series that revives its most beloved pieces and reworks them into vibrantly fresh versions – think bold colors, updated materials, and joyful reinvention of the classics. It probably also took the wind out of the sails of the second-hand market for some of these vintage, hard-to-find pieces – much to the relief of buyers who’d been staring down listings asking literal thousands for, at the end of the day, IKEA shelves. Design classic or not, there’s only so far that sensible money can go.
Innovation at IKEA isn’t just about products either. In Älmhult, Sweden, they operate a world-class design lab that tests durability, explores new materials, and even houses an IKEA museum. And on the sustainability front, they’ve reduced carbon emissions by 30% since 2016 while increasing revenue by 24%, with a goal of halving emissions by 2030. Programs like their Buy Back & Resell initiative – now active in the U.S., Spain, Norway, and other markets – along with second-hand marketplaces and circular design principles, are already encouraging customers to give furniture a second life.
Yes, the price tags are low, but that’s not the same as “cheap” in the disposable sense. IKEA’s combination of massive scale, integrated manufacturing, and a level of supply chain efficiency that goes well beyond obsessive allows them to offer products that, when chosen wisely, can last for decades. Of course, not all furniture is created equal – even (or perhaps especially at) at IKEA. Some materials simply age better than others. Fiberboard has its benefits, cost being an obvious one, but it’s not going to survive the same way a solid wood item will. And let’s be honest, if you go at it full-bore with an electric screwdriver and not enough care during the building process, then you’ll strip screws, crush panels, and take years off its life before it’s even had a chance to prove itself. Solid wood, by contrast, is far more forgiving. It shrugs off a bit of ham-fisted assembly, can be sanded or refinished, and, perhaps most importantly for the long run, it’s mendable. Shop smart, understand the materials, and you can get serious value out of what you spend there.
I’ve relied on IKEA pieces for years, and the appeal is simple: they work. They travel from one apartment to the next without falling apart on their own. They blend into almost any space, and they can survived day-to-day abuse of a dorm room, vacation rental or a family home. I’ve certainly had far more expensive furniture last far less long. Criticism of IKEA often says more about a buyer’s choices than the brand itself.
So, in the spirit of giving credit where it’s due, I’m putting together a new ongoing series here on Filtered Bliss – spotlighting a few IKEA designs that stand above the rest. Because while not every item in those endless aisles is a keeper, the great ones deserve more than a passing glance. Stay tuned.