Tomas Lundin, a former product developer for bedroom storage, remembered how MALM came about: “The team and I developed the chest of drawers with a furniture factory in Poland. The idea was originally sketched out on a napkin, which the engineer made into a simple drawing. The drawing was sent to the factory, which made a prototype, and we then went to Poland to finish it on site. It was a quick and efficient process.”
Ingvar Kamprad said of MALM in September 2002: “Bravo! Especially the version with the wooden knob!” Ingvar loved the fact that MALM came in so many different styles, as customers could choose their own combination of knobs and finish. Not adding the knobs from the start also cut costs – because of their design, the drawers were easy to open and close smoothly in any case. MALM chests could also be fitted with KOMPLEMENT storage, which had been introduced in the 1995 IKEA catalogue. Eventually, a set of six drawer inserts of different sizes was developed in recycled polyester, and they fit perfectly inside the MALM drawers. They were ‘assembled’ using a zip and are still sold at IKEA today, under the name SKUBB.
