1970s

The 1970s are when IKEA started delivering its earlier promises at mass scale. Orange, brown and avocado green flooded Scandinavian homes and, increasingly, homes far beyond Sweden.

The foundations of that philosophy had been laid by Gillis Lundgren, IKEA’s fourth employee. In 1956 he sawed the legs off a coffee table to fit it flat in his Volvo estate. That improvised discovery reshaped the industry: the flat-pack stopped being merely a logistics solution and became an aesthetic and ideological statement. By the 1970s the principle was fully operational. In 1971 Lundgren designed the IMPALA lounge chair: a futuristic, low-slung form on a chrome base. It vanished from the range after just one year due to complex production, making it an instant rarity. The denim TAJT easy chair, also his design, earned the cover of the 1973 catalogue. Both pieces captured the decade’s mood: colour, informality, and a deliberate rejection of bourgeois solemnity.

The defining product of the decade came from Japanese designer Noboru Nakamura, who joined IKEA as a collaborator in 1973. Working with Lars Engman, IKEA’s head of design, he created a cantilevered bentwood chair in layer-glued birch veneer that drew on Alvar Aalto and Bruno Mathsson. It launched in 1976 under the name POEM, appeared on the cover of the 1977 catalogue, and was renamed POÄNG in 1992. Nakamura also designed the KLIPPAN sofa in 1979: a compact, low-armed loveseat with removable, machine-washable covers sized to fit standard fabric reels.

The cultural backdrop was post-1968 Sweden: egalitarian ideals, a growing middle class, and a conviction that a well-designed home should not be a privilege of the wealthy. The yellow-and-blue warehouses offered beauty on a budget, and the flat-pack catalogue was its manifesto.