GRILL was a three-legged stackable chair with a steel tube frame, and a seat and back in moulded teak. GRILL was also made in a version with a wooden underframe. Designer Bengt Ruda was the first qualified designer to be employed at IKEA. Before being recruited in 1957, he had designed furniture for the high-end department store Nordiska Kompaniet (NK), working among other things on the self-assembly Triva series. With this background, he had an important part to play when IKEA started making furniture for flat packs. Bengt Ruda was a designer at IKEA until 1979.
In 1958, GRILL won the jury award at the Society of Crafts and Design’s major design exhibition – the forerunner of Excellent Swedish Design. One of the adjectives the panel used to describe the little chair was “energetic”. GRILL was also written about in furniture industry magazine Möbelvärlden, in an article from the furniture showroom at the new IKEA store in Älmhult in 1958.
GRILL is a good example of how, from the early days, IKEA focused on smart product development. For example, IKEA could keep prices down by using parts from the suppliers who could offer the lowest prices, as well as the best knowledge about the right materials and techniques.
GRILL was in the IKEA catalogue 1958–1960.
