For our final weekend in Sweden we decided that we needed to do the one thing that no Swedish holiday was complete without. We headed out to the IKEA Museum in Älmhult.
IKEA is one of the things that most people think of when they think of Sweden - it was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, initially as a mail order business. It then shifted focus to furniture in 1958, opening the first store in Ämhult, in the district of Småland. The company was highly successful with its business model of reducing the price and lead-time of furniture by selling flat packs that could be assembled at home. There was a lot of cost associated with transporting assembled furniture, along with the risks of damage during transit. In addition it was costly to stock large quantities of assembled furniture, so often there were long lead times.
The name IKEA comes from his initials
IK, the name of the farm he grew up on (
Elmtaryd) and his hometown of
Agunnaryd.
The museum was opened in 2016 is located in Älmhult, in the original IKEA store building (the store was moved to a bigger location in 2012).
We started of by heading to
Bökhults badplats (Bökhults Bath place / beach) for lunch:
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| Unfortunately we didn't see any moose |
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| IKEA Älmhult |
As we entered into Älmhult, we came across a roundabout that was covered in signs.It was an art installation called Skyltar (signs) collecting road signs from all over the world. It was pretty cool, but a bit distracting when we approached and tried to work out where to go.
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| Skyltar |
At
Bökhults badplats we found a clear BBQ cabin and set up our portable BBQ to cook up some sausages while the kids played on the playground:
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| Our cabin |
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| Preparing the BBQ |
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| We have fire! |
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| Bökhults badplats |
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| Where there is smoke there is.. sausages |
After lunch, we headed back into Älmhult and the IKEA museum:
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| The IKEA Museum in the original IKEA store |
Outside the museum was a shipping container with a 75 years of IKEA display showing some of their products over the years. The kids had fun pointing out which items we had owned and what was released in their birth years:
and outside the kids took the chance to have a rest on some concrete Klippan couches:
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| The uncomfortable shot |
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| and the relaxed one |
Once we'd paid to enter we started with the IKEA Hacked! exhibit. It was an art display that showed things that people had made from combining or modifying IKEA furniture. We also passed under the ball coaster which sent balls from the top floor to a tank at the bottom
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| Ball Coaster |
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| Looking into the art section |
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| Crossbow made from the 'Bumerang' coat-hangers |
The first display was joke reviews that were left in store by a stand up comedian Jeff Wysaski:
In the centre of the area was a make-your-own art work station. You could pick from any of the rotating items and it would break them apart and allow you to reassemble them:
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| Here's some of the strange things they made. |
And some of the art work:
'
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| A ball of IKEA lamps... |
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| A light and texture table for seeing how light passes through different objects |
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| These chairs would be unfomfortable to sit on.. |
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| Lamps made from plastic containers and cups |
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| A wave pattern Expedit shelving unit. |
Next up was a section where the kids could scan an item of furniture and it displayed some of the ways it could be 'hacked'.
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| Scanning a table |
We spent the most time at the next section - a sewing table where you could sew IKEA bags into interesting things. True, most of the time was spend with Kris or I rethreading the sewing machines, but the kids had fun:
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| Tomas made a big bag into a smaller bag |
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| Kris made an apron |
When we had finished, we passed through the shop and then up to the upper level displays. The first part was the wall of colour, which showed the main IKEA colours used. We got the kids to find their matching section:
The floor consisted of some of the history of IKEA and some of their earlier products:
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| Ingvar got his start selling matches that he would buy in bulk |
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| Catalogue from the original mail order business Möbel-IKEA (möbel means furniture) |
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| One of the original Co-Worker uniforms |
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| IKEA also sold pipes |
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| Conveyors ran along the sides of the top floor showing some of the product range |
The kids liked the chair display. The intent was to show how it would feel for an adult to sit in a childs chair and visa versa:
We also came across the top of the ball coaster:
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| There was a badge for every IKEA store worldwide with its open date - Adelaide opened in 2006 |
And no visit would be complete without a print-your-own IKEA catalogue cover. We did a sensible one and then this one for a bit of fun:
On the way back, we stopped at Barnens by (Children'd Village), which was a campsite where Kris had spend an overnight camp with her class a few days earlier. The area was constructed in the 1935s as an alternative camp for children who couldn't afford the more expensive summer camps. Now it is often used for school trips and holiday camps:
