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Whether you go for the affordable modern furniture or the famously delicious Swedish meatballs, Ikea is about as mainstream as a furniture brand can get. The world’s largest furniture retailer, Ikea has over 350 stores in 29 countries, and a host of products that have become household names (Malm! Billy! Kallax!).
Over the weekend, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad passed away at the age of 91, leaving behind a global furniture empire that originally began as a mail-order home goods business in 1943. In the following decades, the decisions that helped keep Ikea prices low—remarkably simple design, flat-pack shipping, etc.—are also what customers have come to know and appreciate.
We’ve published all sorts of things about Ikea over the years, from a journey to its birthplace in Sweden to its U.S. influence to a dictionary of the company’s umlaut-laden product names. Highlights are compiled below for your reading convenience.
1. Visiting Älmhult, Sweden, where Ikea was born
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2. The 7 best penny-pinching ways of Ingvar Kamprad
3. One day at Ikea’s biggest store in the U.S.
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4. How Ikea became America’s furniture-selling powerhouse
5. The Ikea cult shelf that a Curbed editor just can’t quit
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