[HN Gopher] IKEA Catalogs 1951-2021
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IKEA Catalogs 1951-2021
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 261 points
Date : 2025-10-07 15:35 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (ikeamuseum.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (ikeamuseum.com)
| jihadjihad wrote:
| Where did the Eames chair lookalike disappear to after '68? I
| want one.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| In corduroy! https://auctionet.com/en/2229425-fatolj-mila-hog-
| ikea-1960-t...
| ziofill wrote:
| holy cow I would have never guessed it went back 74 years! @_@
| lysace wrote:
| I hadn't noticed the lack of printed IKEA catalogs until now.
| Seems like they stopped making them in 2021. They used to just
| appear in the mailbox. (I'm in Sweden. They were literally sent
| to every household in the country every year.)
|
| I'm a fan of print layout catalogs over database driven web
| sites. Can't AI help with making an appealing paginated layout of
| a product database? I'd be happy with a 1 GB .pdf.
|
| Edit: Shoutout to the electronics supplier Reichelt in Germany
| for keeping the catalog alive:
|
| https://cdn-reichelt.de/katalog/01-2025/ (537 MB .pdf)
| WillAdams wrote:
| No need for AI --- I used to work up automated typesetting
| systems for a previous employer --- feed in the database as a
| properly tagged XML file, provide all the graphics in a folder,
| and a couple of typesetting runs later, one had a fully
| paginated PDF w/ ToC and Index.
|
| The problem is, no one wants to pay for this since no value is
| seen in such a paginated view --- even if AI could create such
| a typesetting routine.
| lysace wrote:
| I mean, what I'm after is a page layout that is designed with
| compactness and readability in mind. Going from a product
| database to that requires quite a lot.
|
| An example:
|
| https://archive.org/details/mouserelectronic00unse/page/190/.
| ..
| bombcar wrote:
| A printed catalog also provides discovery that no website
| has ever matched.
| lysace wrote:
| Exactly. So, my hope is that AI can rebuild this lost art
| that is now deemed too expensive.
| Theodores wrote:
| I don't think you need AI but you do need to think about the
| audience for the printed catalogue.
|
| A few years ago I did the website for a retailer of clothes for
| the elderly, and they were doing it old school with the
| catalogue, printed order form and excellent customer service by
| phone. Their niche was the demographic every other clothing
| retailer avoided. Unless you have a similar niche, you have to
| ask about whether a printed catalogue is worthwhile.
|
| AI could potentially help but how do you plan and budget time
| for that? It could take anything between two minutes and two
| years to get right. Meanwhile you could do it old-school with
| artworkers slaving away. Alternatively, you could automate the
| process to use print stylesheets where you specify the page
| size and then populate the content with CSS grid layout. The
| printed catalogue could then be created on demand (and cached)
| so that it automatically updates itself. This could be a
| manageable process that you could plan and budget for.
|
| In your product database you could have fields for layout
| preferences so that you can specify the featured product for
| each page and what to downgrade in the presentation. I would
| say this is definitely viable and one reason this is not done
| is that any company still invested in print catalogues will
| have an artworker department and nobody in such a department
| would invest time into automating their job.
| waltbosz wrote:
| Very cool. I wonder how much of that 1950s IKEA furniture has
| survived to today.
| layer8 wrote:
| Likely more than today's IKEA furniture will survive until
| 2100.
| BoredPositron wrote:
| Woah...that brings back some memories. In a whole different
| timeline 22 years ago I was printing them for literal months. We
| did all European versions and it was 8 weeks of nothing but IKEA
| catalogs. They were highly optimized so for a language change we
| only had to switch the black cylinders. The whole IT was bonkers
| for the time we used SGI workstations for pre press and had like
| 100 bonded dial up connections for the mass of data. The pages
| came as TIF files and a catalogue was around 300GB. We were a
| rotogravure shop and did around 13m/s of 3-4 meters paper in
| width and around 4-5 kilometers in length. I think a whole run
| was 50 metric tons of paper. Good times but incredibly boring if
| the machine was dialed in.
| supportengineer wrote:
| I don't think most people appreciate the miracle that is paper
| publishing.
|
| For decades we used to have _daily newspapers_ delivered to our
| doorstep, and the price was low enough that almost anyone could
| afford it.
| nine_k wrote:
| I still regularly receive printed papers at my (building's)
| doorstep; they are printed in color, and completely dedicated
| to ads.
| fragmede wrote:
| And that they were set by linotype! Whenever I get annoyed at
| Jekyll or ruby or GitHub pages or whatever not building and
| needing maintenance, I think back and am suddenly grateful
| that my problem isn't of sorting funny shaped pieces of metal
| into exactly the right order.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| Is there a reason IKEA doesn't bring back all of the classic
| designs from time to time?
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| They bring select designs back ALL the time. What do you mean?
|
| Here is just one example (with historic catalog images
| included): https://www.ikea.com/global/en/stories/our-
| roots/vintage-ike...
| criddell wrote:
| Some would be hard for them to make at a reasonable price today
| and they wouldn't sell in big numbers at a higher price.
|
| Adam Savage recently posted a video about his favorite IKEA
| cabinet:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLAAxxjM_7U
|
| The drawers have box joints which is something I can't imagine
| IKEA of today doing.
|
| It's on page 311 of their 1997 catalog FYI.
| Ma8ee wrote:
| The only reason they wouldn't sell a drawer with a box joint
| today is because they wouldn't be able make the box flat
| enough. They certainly use even more complex joints even
| today.
| CGMthrowaway wrote:
| Good housekeeping wrote as recently as 2023 that ikea kitchen
| cabinets used dovetail joinery.[1] But this runs counter to
| my and everyone I know's experience. Not sure how/why they
| could write that.
|
| [1]https://www.aol.com/best-kitchen-cabinet-brands-
| according-19...
| ta12653421 wrote:
| Ah, Sixties are knocking! Steel, Aluminium, Glass & Leather.
|
| Shrugging....
| ta12653421 wrote:
| one must be very pissed to degrade a comment which lines out
| explicitly wrongly driven design which never took off (it would
| be existing today!), which looks and feels cold, which gives a
| feeling of loneliness, handing over some nice "hey-it-looks-
| good"
|
| the degrade of design & perception is remarkable.
| drivers99 wrote:
| LACK is from 1979 according to IKEA but the first one I could
| actually find (purely out of curiosity) is in the 1981 catalog on
| page 68 (in 5 colors). It is also on the front cover.
| panzagl wrote:
| Someone is a Tested viewer...
| Broussebar wrote:
| My first thought as well
| fragmede wrote:
| Wait, so you saw this already and didn't share it with the rest
| of us? How selfish!
| jeffpersonified wrote:
| The progression of the catalogue and furniture design from 1950
| through to 1960 is remarkable. What a transformative time.
| rixrax wrote:
| This is awesome! I wish Omega, Zenith, Seiko and other watch
| manufacturers would do the same and publish their historic
| catalogs online! And auto manufacturers, and really everyone who
| is in the kind of business where catalogs like this exists.
| ahartmetz wrote:
| Crazy how few of their decades old designs look "wrong" today.
| Their combination of high quality design, low price, and
| (depending on price...) workable to good build quality is pretty
| unique.
| andrelaszlo wrote:
| I just renovated an Ikea table from 1980-something. Actually
| found it in the catalog too.
|
| It's solid wood, so it'll probably last another 40 years at
| least.
| atombender wrote:
| Mind you, a _lot_ of their designs are cheap knock-offs of
| contemporary designs.
|
| * The POANG chair is a copy of Alvar Aalto's 406.
|
| * Nakamura's earlier POEM copied both the 406 and a chair by
| Bruno Mathsson.
|
| * FROSTA (now discontinued) is a copy of Aalto's Stool 60.
|
| * KROMVIK copied Bruno Mathsson's Ulla bed frame.
|
| * BORE copied Mathsson's Karin chair.
|
| And so on. Ironically, some of these also have become classics
| of their own, or at least sought-after vintage objects.
|
| IKEA sometimes comes up with original, sometimes novel designs,
| but generally they copy better designs with worse manufacturing
| quality rather than coming up with original ones.
|
| And they are genuinely worse in terms of construction. For
| example, if you compare the wood quality of a FROSTA with
| Aalta's stool it's night and day. FROSTA is just plywood cut to
| size. The Aalto stool is solid birch, with a plywood top and an
| elegant solid birch veneer for the edge band, and the legs use
| a unique plywood-like join that is a thing of beauty [1].
|
| [1] https://www.alvaraalto.fi/wp-
| content/uploads/2017/10/l-jalka...
| BizarroLand wrote:
| The more striking thing is checking them against each other.
|
| The 1959 catalog had thin, svelte, curved and up angled
| designs. The Mid 80's had plump, puffy, overstuffed and was
| quite tame-loud, whereas the 2020's has "I'm not here, white-
| black-pop of color" aesthetics.
| nosrepa wrote:
| Was it only the English ones that got the dog penis?
| NaOH wrote:
| Previously:
|
| _The IKEA catalogue through the ages_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28997461 - Oct 2021 (64
| comments)
| galfarragem wrote:
| I'd happily pay for the traditional physical IKEA yearly catalog.
| I suspect that if they sold it in-store for a few euros (EUR2?)
| just to cover printing costs, many people would buy it. It's more
| than a product list, it's a cultural artifact, offering a window
| into the aesthetics, values, and lifestyle of its time. I still
| keep their old catalogs, and I'm not alone.
| ruszki wrote:
| It was one if not the most effective advertisement which I've
| encountered in my life. We got it freely every year with post,
| and I dreamed as a kid to have such houses and flats which
| could be seen in them. The brand stuck me so well, that it's my
| go to furniture store, since I moved out from my parents. I
| wanted to read it again last year to have some ideas for my new
| flat, and I was devastated when I've figured out that it's not
| printed anymore. Even as I've been continuously online for
| 24-25 years, a digital "version" of it will never be the same.
| I won't ever read it just for fun, which we did back then so
| many times (my whole family), that it became utterly damaged
| until the next year's edition came. I would easily pay for it.
| freddie_mercury wrote:
| > And behind the scenes, work on the next catalogue had already
| begun - a process lasting several months and involving
| planning, construction of interiors, photography and filming,
| all led by catalogue manager Mia Olsson Tuner.
|
| It is naive to assume printing costs are the only costs
| involved.
|
| I feel comfortable assuming IKEA had a better understanding of
| the economic fundamentals of the catalogue than HN commenters.
| degrews wrote:
| No one is assuming printing costs are the only costs to
| produce the catalogue. The point of pricing the catalogue at
| printing costs is to cover the marginal cost of offering the
| catalogue for sale. The fixed costs of producing the calendar
| are incurred either way.
| superfist wrote:
| One of these catalogs is connected to an interesting story that
| happened to me not long ago. The situation took place in Poland.
| I recently visited a friend's house, and there my attention was
| caught by an old chest of drawers that must have been made during
| the communist era (the PRL period). I asked my friend if he knew
| what model it was, since there weren't many such pieces made in
| those days -- there are catalogs and auctions, so these things
| must be documented somewhere. He told me that he had already
| searched for it online but couldn't find anything.
|
| Out of curiosity, we moved the chest of drawers and looked behind
| it. There we found a small label with a production date (probably
| 1963) and the name of one of the Polish state-owned furniture
| factories. There was also the model name - quite enigmatic - and
| when I searched for it online, nothing came up.
|
| The mystery intrigued me so much that I spent several hours going
| through old PRL-era catalogs and online auctions. After quite
| some time, I finally came across a photo on an auction site where
| someone was selling a similar piece - another item from the same
| furniture set. The description was very detailed; the seller even
| claimed it was a unique piece and included an extensive history
| of these furniture items.
|
| It turned out that they were designed by Marian Grabinski, and
| the set was originally a wedding gift for Ingvar Kamprad, the
| founder of IKEA. Kamprad liked the gift so much that the
| furniture went into mass production - but only in Sweden. They
| were never available in Poland!
|
| The auction also included scans from one of the old IKEA catalogs
| from 1964 (pages 111-114, see thread link). But how did these
| pieces end up in Poland? I don't know if the Polish company
| actually produced them for IKEA, but according to the
| description, at least prototype series was made in Poland and
| distributed among some communist party officials in limited
| number. This was never available to buy in Poland.
|
| As I later found out from my friend - his aunt actually was a
| communist party member and even held a fairly high position there
| so it made perfect sense.
| robin_reala wrote:
| Poland was a core manufacturing hub for IKEA for much of the
| 1960s, after Swedish manufacturers started to boycott them:
| https://ikeamuseum.com/en/explore/the-story-of-ikea/czesc-po...
| rossant wrote:
| I never realized that IKEA was over 80 years old.
| yreg wrote:
| They were founded during WWII and they don't like to think
| about what their founder was doing during those years.
| driese wrote:
| What a coincidence to see this on the HN front page. I want to
| use these catalogs for a project of mine, but I first wanted to
| speak to one of the people of the IKEA museum or IKEA itself to
| inquire about permissions (outside of the ones on the website). I
| have been trying to get a hold of them for weeks now, but with no
| luck so far. If anyone here knows someone at those places, please
| let me know.
| ikeamuseumreal wrote:
| In this age of extreme AI scraping, and an actual need for fun,
| whimsical projects built around IKEA catalogs, I give you
| permission.
|
| (I am obviously not the ikea museum, sorry - but what's your
| project?)
| driese wrote:
| Haha cheers. Despite this being a fun project, I'd still like
| to be the first to do it, so forgive me for not telling yet.
| I will try another round of outreach tomorrow and post it on
| HN as soon as I get permission.
| alpinemeadow wrote:
| DM me!
| driese wrote:
| I'd love to, but your profile gives no way to contact you?
| You can find one on mine, otherwise I'd be happy about a
| link.
| Aardwolf wrote:
| Other than the flower patterns on the sofas, 1976 looks pretty
| modern actually...
| walthamstow wrote:
| For the Brits here I spent an hour or so last Christmas looking
| at old Argos catalogues from before and during my childhood.
| Great fun.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| Being a teenageer, those _big_ catalogues sure
| were...educational.
| situationista wrote:
| Argos is great, but doesn't have a patch on the old SkyMall
| catalogues you'd find in US carriers up to around 2010
| vintagedave wrote:
| Was IKEA furniture always self-assembled for the entire time? The
| catalogues are wonderful for how fashion changed, but I'd love to
| see the evolution of user-facing design in terms of simple,
| explained engineering.
| elygre wrote:
| I was 13, delivering advertisement to mailboxes (basically a
| newspaper boy, but delivering to every mailbox).
|
| Most weeks it was one bag for my route. Except when the ikea
| catalogue arrived... I went back and forth and back and forth --
| that thing was thick and heavy!
| situationista wrote:
| I recall being told the IKEA catalogue is the only publication
| ever to surpass the Bible in terms of annual print run (200
| million at its peak)
| 112233 wrote:
| A bit OT, but why is ikea internet store (any country) designed
| to be so unusable? Lists of available components hidden in pdfs
| tucked in obscure menu, no way to find compatible components,
| search flooded with tens of thousands of "combinations" -- I
| mean, they obviously know what they are doing. What is the goal
| of making it such way?
| kace91 wrote:
| This is completely anectodal, but I have a friend who works
| there and he talks about a very change-averse culture.
|
| He has to sit through talks about how Ikea is a bussiness that
| already works very well and the most important thing is to
| avoid any changes that have even a 0.001% chance of making it
| not work. Many relatively trivial deployments have to be
| approved by a lengthy international bureaucracy, with a focus
| on preventing any automation that can eventually result in
| workforce not being needed. Things like that.
| silvestrov wrote:
| Also: why can't they show all sizes of a product jusst like
| when choosing t-shirt size on a normal shop?
|
| e.g. this dresser is available in many sizes but you wouldn't
| know from the product page:
| https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/storklinta-3-drawer-chest-white...
|
| At best you can then search for "STORKLINTA" but the result
| list has the other sizes mixed with all sorts of other products
| such as beds: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/search/?q=STORKLINTA
| Reason077 wrote:
| IKEA likes to find ways to get you into their physical stores
| because they know you're going to end up buying more than just
| the items you came for.
|
| So they have a website that sort of teases you, but isn't
| actually good enough to replace the physical stores.
|
| You'll start on the website, but get frustrated with it and
| eventually just drive over to IKEA to find the items you want.
| And you'll also come home with some candles, picture frames,
| and a couple packs of frozen meatballs.
| makeitdouble wrote:
| I'm probably part of that problem.
|
| While I don't shop that much at Ikea, I still remember their
| product lines, will sift through the dozens of combinations and
| PDFs, and take notes while looking at the building instructions
| to see what could be done with a product.
|
| Most of us will choose Ikea for the flexibility, and will
| happily do some amount of research anyway.
|
| Until reading your comment it didn't hit me that the site was
| so different from other brands, like Apple for instance. And I
| sure don't enjoy Apple's site. But then Ikea shops aren't
| traditional shops either, if sifting through pages of products
| isn't your thing, walking through sinuous paths all around the
| shop won't be either.
|
| It's a fundamentally different public.
| gertlex wrote:
| The 'Acquired' podcast episode on Ikea speculates that their
| "buy in person" was historically a cost advantage (especially
| over pre-assembled furniture that cost $$$ to deliver), as they
| didn't have to pay shipping/delivery. In the modern era of
| "expect free shipping as long as some minimum amount is spent",
| online sold and delivered sales have less profit margin, and
| one could imagine an intentional business decision to try and
| keep the in-person experience the "preferred" one for
| customers.
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(page generated 2025-10-07 23:00 UTC)