The 5 best IKEA collaborations After the recent collection with Gustaf Westman

For many, IKEA remains synonymous with affordable furniture and Swedish meatballs, a brand that furnishes student apartments and fills Airbnb rentals. The widespread perception is that of a functional giant, designed for “cheap” and utility. Yet its history tells another story: since its inception, the Swedish company has aimed to democratize mid-century design, bringing it out of elite living rooms to make it accessible to everyone. Over the years, this mission has translated into a long series of collaborations with designers and brands that have allowed IKEA to move from the purely utilitarian to the cultural, transforming tables and lamps into conversation pieces as well as furniture.

The brand-new capsule is signed by Gustaf Westman, the Danish designer renowned for his use of bold colors and soft curves, which has already reached unprecedented levels of virality on social media. The collection consists of holiday-inspired tableware, perfect for long dinners with family or friends (there’s even a special plate for meatballs). The one with Westman is not IKEA’s first successful collab; it actually adds to a very long list that over the years has included Lego, Animal Crossing, and NASA. Some of them, however, have made the brand’s history to the point of entering the archives of the IKEA Museum in Älmhult. Here are the five best collaborations from the Scandinavian design giant.

Thomas Erikkson

For IKEA aficionados, it’s well known that every product on display carries a small signature, that of the designer who created it, be it a spoon or a sofa. Among these, one of the most recognizable signatures of the 1990s is that of Thomas Eriksson, a Danish architect and furniture designer who created one of the brand’s most iconic objects: a small keyhole-shaped clock, compact and slightly plump, that quickly entered collective memory. Its story is intertwined with that of IKEA PS, the experimental line launched in 1995 at the Milan Furniture Fair under the claim of Democratic Design. Within that collection, Eriksson’s clock immediately became one of the most recognizable pieces. Available in several colors and even designed as a small storage container, it managed to turn an everyday object into an icon of democratic design. Remaining in production until 2005, today it can only be found in the IKEA Museum shop.

Virgil Abloh

DJ, creative director, architect, fashion visionary: what wasn’t Virgil Abloh? After founding Off-White and being appointed menswear director at Louis Vuitton, the designer seemed to have left behind his original academic path (a degree in civil engineering and a master’s in architecture). Still, in 2019, he returned to engage with the world of interiors through a collaboration with IKEA. The collection was called MARKERAD and was a limited edition designed to reinterpret the most anonymous everyday objects, chairs, rugs, and clocks, turning them into statement pieces. As was always the case with Virgil, the operation did not stop at design but worked on language: his iconic quotation marks, omnipresent, added irony and a conceptual layer to products that would otherwise have remained neutral. «The ethos of the collection is to add an artistic quality to anonymous objects», Abloh declared at the time, summarizing an approach that aimed to bring art closer to the everyday and break down the hierarchies between high fashion and mass consumption.

Marimekko

In 2023, Ikea announced a capsule with Marimekko, the Finnish brand known for its graphic prints and floral patterns that became symbols of Nordic design. The operation had a clear goal: to merge two democratic design visions that, in different ways, had made everyday life more vibrant and accessible. The collection, named BASTUA, drew inspiration from the culture of the Finnish sauna and combined functional elements with oversized patterns, bringing a joyful and pop aesthetic into domestic spaces. In this case, Ikea’s strategy was not so much to chase an iconic name, but to engage with a brand that has embodied the same philosophy for decades, with design meant for everyone, without sacrificing character and Scandinavian recognizability.

Byredo

The collaboration with Byredo in 2020 instead marked a shift in tone. The brand founded by Ben Gorham, renowned for its conceptual fragrances, brought the olfactory world into Ikea, opening a new chapter in the history of the Swedish giant. The candle collection OSYNLIG (“invisible” in Swedish) was not just a style exercise but embodied the idea that scent itself could be democratized, making refined sensory experiences accessible to a global audience. With minimal packaging and a range of fragrances that stretched from smoky woods to floral notes, OSYNLIG showed how Ikea was able to bring the emotional luxury dimension closer to mass consumption.

Sabine Marcelis

More recent is the collaboration with Sabine Marcelis, a New Zealand–Dutch designer who in recent years has gained international attention thanks to her work with resins, glossy surfaces, and light play. With Ikea, Marcelis translated her sculptural approach into a collection of home objects that hybridize functionality and aesthetic presence, making accessible forms and materials usually confined to galleries or site-specific projects. The result is a series of products that almost resemble domestic installations –transparent, colorful, and able to capture light. Also inspired by the curves of the Nessino by Artemide, Marcelis has, in a way, brought into Ikea the grammar of contemporary design, once again shifting the boundary of what is considered “ordinary” in a global consumer context.