IKEA’s PS Collection 2024: Playful Scandinavian Design Meets Functional Innovation

Inside IKEA’s movie studio-sized marketing and production facility at the company’s headquarters in Älmhult, Sweden, a corner of a vast soundstage is piled with a multicolored array of what look like props from a fantastical children’s show. There’s a bench that rocks from side to side, a bright blue lamp with transformative elbows hidden in its post, a glass vase with jug ears protruding from its sides, and a clock mounted on the end of a curvaceous red tube resembling a worm emerging from the dirt.

[Photo: IKEA]

These whimsical items are part of IKEA’s new PS Collection, a recurring product line launched in 1995 to experiment with design innovation. Now available in stores and online, this year’s PS Collection marks the 10th iteration since the company first staked its claim in Scandinavian design.

[Photo: IKEA]

IKEA’s PS Collection: A Decade of Design Experimentation

The PS Collection serves as a flagship moment for IKEA, showcasing its vision for the future of Scandinavian design while reinforcing its own design philosophy. The lineup includes softly curved plywood chairs, a square table with a sliding drawer, and an adjustable stool featuring a sawtooth mechanism for height adjustments.

“The brief was ‘less but more, simple but not a bore,’” says Maria O’Brian, the creative leader behind the PS Collection. “And this is what came back.” During an early April visit to IKEA’s headquarters, O’Brian guided an exclusive tour of the prototyping shop, where many of the 1,500 to 2,000 new products IKEA releases annually are meticulously developed.

[Photo: IKEA]

Part of the collection was being prepped for shipment to Milan’s Salone del Mobile, the annual furniture fair that has evolved from an elite design showcase to a platform for IKEA’s “democratic design” since the PS Collection’s debut in 1995. Over 30 years later, O’Brian emphasizes the collection’s enduring purpose.

“Scandinavian design is all about simplicity, material, functionality, and directness,” O’Brian explains. “It’s also about resourcefulness and smart use of materials—ornamentation shouldn’t be added just for the sake of it. But it’s never boring.”

[Photo: IKEA]

From Prototype to Global Product: The Inflatable Easy Chair

One standout piece in the PS Collection is an inflatable easy chair, a concept that took designer Mikael Axelsson over a decade to perfect. During the visit to IKEA’s headquarters, prototypes of the chair were on display, showcasing the evolution from concept to a manufacturable product now sold in hundreds of IKEA stores worldwide.

IKEA’s PS Collection continues to push boundaries, blending playful aesthetics with functional innovation to redefine Scandinavian design for modern living.