"Ikea is not so much a store as a cultural phenomenon. It's the land of the Allen key, where the product names make us laugh (do I really need a lamp called Knubbig?) and the missing pieces make us groan. We joke about the confusing layout but we still flock to the company's outlets.
Ikea is the best-known mass-producer of home products in the world. About 30 per cent of households in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane contain something bought there in the past year. This week, the company announced six more stores would be built in the next decade.
Some items are more than just furniture. The Billy bookcase is a rite of passage, a symbol of the proud, just-left-home renter. With its flat-pack, sustainably grown timber, low price and modular form, Billy is a contemporary furniture icon, a bestseller here and overseas. And, in truth, you're just as likely to find it in the home of the first-time renter's parents. If anything sums up Ikea's contribution to the way we live, it's this modest book-holder.
Even museums have recognised the company's impact. The Museum of Modern Art in New York has pieces in its permanent collection. The Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, Vienna's Imperial Furniture Collection and Stockholm's contemporary art museum, Liljevalchs konsthall, have mounted exhibitions on Ikea in the past year.
These retrospectives coincide with the 60th anniversary of Ikea's catalogue. The launch of this clever marketing tool in 1951 marked a turning point for a company whose founder, Ingvar Kamprad, began as a 17-year-old peddler of pencils, stockings, matches and household items in Sweden in 1943.
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