We have the first-ever look inside the secretive Swedish facility, revealing how the world’s most popular furniture retailer mocks up and ultimately gut checks up to 2,000 new products a year.
The tiny easy chair Mikael Axelsson is holding in his hands—a dollhouse-size combination of bent wire, hand-carved foam, and hot glue—has been a white whale for the Ikea designer since he first modeled it back in 2014. The concept was simple, or at least he thought it would be: Build a frame of metal, fill it with a balloon-like cushion, and reinvent novelty 1990s blow-up furniture into a modern home furnishing.
