Home Digital The Story of IKEA Life at home 2000s

Life at home
2000s

A family with children and a dog spread around a large, light family room with an open-plan solution. The furniture is either light wood or white.
A family with children and a dog spread around a large, light family room with an open-plan solution. The furniture is either light wood or white.
Image from IKEA catalogue 2007.
Design & Form Inspiration +2

In the new millennium’s first decade, the modern information society emerges. Mobile phones and video games change life at home for many people.

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.

A woman and three children in a room with a light-wood dining table. A black and white colour scheme. Two children play ludo.
A man, a woman, two children and a dog spread around a large kitchen island with bar stools along one side. The kitchen is in light wood.
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.

A light living room dominated by full, wall-to-wall bookshelves. Several armchairs, including a POÄNG with footstool.
A child is standing on its head right where two end-to-end beds meet. Light textiles in check or graphic patterns.
A seating group in light shades over a black and white striped rug. The seating is placed next to an all-white kitchen.
Regardless of the amount of space, most people want a home that’s a safe spot where everything and everyone has enough room. Images from IKEA catalogues: 1. 2009 2. 2007 3. 2009.

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.

A light bedroom where one wall is covered by a storage combination with open and closed storage. A drape can be pulled across.
A bedroom bordering a study. The colour scheme is alternately light and dark. Storage in a lot of different boxes.
A white wall section where a lime-green folding table is surrounded by shelves, metal cabinets and small storage in white.
Plastic boxes of various sizes stacked on top of each other. Bed textiles, clothes, folders and candles are neatly packed in the boxes.
Plan, sort, store! It’s become increasingly important to create space using smart storage. Images from IKEA catalogues: 1. 2009 2. 2008 3. 2008 4. 2008

“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.

For information about products browse the IKEA catalogues from the 2000s

Design & Form Inspiration +2

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2000s IKEA catalogues
IKEA catalogues 2000–2009 reflect the period’s social development, lifestyle and design. Browse to remember and be inspired by life at home in the 2000s.
Product stories 2000s
Go back in time to the 2000s and explore the stories and design processes of memorable and often iconic IKEA products.
Life at home 2010s
During the 2010s, the traditional boundaries between the rooms in a home continue to change and disappear. People increasingly realise that there are many different ways to live and work, and that this often affects life at home.