IKEA is now a global brand that makes products for people from different cultures and furnishing traditions. With regular customer surveys, IKEA tries to get to know its customers and also find out what needs people have in a more urbanised world with smaller homes. It is very much about storage. Being able to sort, store and organise all our stuff becomes increasingly important.
Life at home
2000s
Image from IKEA catalogue 2007.
In the new millennium’s first decade, the modern information society emerges. Mobile phones and video games change life at home for many people.
One week the family is big, the next small. Everyone needs space. The kitchen is the hub of the home where you can eat, study and work. Smart storage height-wise, length-wise and width-wise is often necessary to make it all work. Images from IKEA catalogues: 2008 (left), 2007 (right).
When square metres are scarce, many people have to think in cubic metres instead, and utilise all the space in the room – the length, width and height. Open-plan solutions become popular, erasing the boundary between kitchen and living room. The kitchen island makes an entrance, creating a social space along with bar stools.
New family constellations, with more children spending every other week with a different parent, bring new demands on flexible, space-saving solutions. One week the children and their friends crowd around the kitchen table, and the next week there’s just a single parent, maybe with a new partner.
As the world becomes more connected, new technology also creates new forms of socialising both inside and outside the home. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are launched. Someone might be on the sofa with a laptop, someone else is at the table chatting online, and someone’s on their bed playing a video game. Many people feel that being connected is equivalent to winding down. At the same time, smart products come along with several functions, combinable modular furniture and do-it-yourself solutions that make it possible to create more practical, smoothly running homes.
“Plan your home around the way you live” is the message from IKEA, which tries to give people what they need to meet some of their everyday challenges. Environmental interest is growing among young people, and social and environmental sustainability are now important. Better products for functional waste sorting, stackable storage for the fridge and for taking leftovers to work for lunch are a few simple yet helpful actions towards a more sustainable future.
