IKEA’s vintage-inspired Nytillverkad collection already has fans excited, even though it doesn’t officially hit stores in the United States until summer. That’s because the brand just revealed that this drop features reinventions of two iconic IKEA pieces: the POÄNG armchair and the KLIPPAN sofa.
The coolest part of this project — which IKEA announced as part of the festivities for Milan Design Week 2024 — is that Japanese designer Noboru Nakamura, the best-selling items’ original designer, personally reimagined the pieces before his passing in 2023. That gives the resulting pieces an extra layer of gravitas.
Inspired by the bold hues of the ‘80s, Nakamura sought to update this seating with new features while still keeping them true to their DNA. Take the KLIPPAN loveseat, aka many people’s first apartment sofa (myself included!), for example. This couch debuted in 1980 and has since been cast in hundreds of different covers. For 2024, though, Nakamura kept the basic silhouette the same but reintroduced the puffy slipcovers the couch donned exactly 40 years ago.
Available in vibrant red, blue, and yellow colorways, the padding adds an undeniable coziness to the piece, making it appear almost as if it’s wearing a comfy, but still statement-making, tailored puffer jacket.
The POÄNG armchair, which first hit the market in 1977 as POEM, has had several iterations over the past few decades. For the Nytillverkad collection, Nakamura and IKEA played with the chair’s profile to create a slightly more streamlined, low-back look. Specifically, the POÄNG is losing its headrest to make the seat more compact and modern in style, and the seating angle was tweaked to encourage what IKEA calls a “more active posture welcoming social interactions.”
If you want to own one of these pieces of IKEA history, these redesigns will be available for purchase in stores in August.