Walter Van Beirendonck Ikea

IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer, but its origins were far humbler than its global footprint suggests. Founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad in the Swedish village of Älmhult, the company began as a mail-order business selling pens, wallets and picture frames. It wasn't until 1948 that the IKEA catalog started featuring furniture, altering the course of modern domestic design.

IKEA is rooted in democratic design, or the belief that well-made, beautiful objects should be accessible to everyone. This philosophy took shape in the 1950s when IKEA began working with independent designers to develop its own furniture lines. The pivotal innovation came in 1956, when IKEA introduced flat-pack furniture, a practical solution born out of necessity when designer Gillis Lundgren removed a table's legs to fit it into a car. This single insight reshaped how the world thinks about manufacturing, shipping and the relationship between consumer and object.

The 1970s and 1980s are now widely considered the golden age of IKEA design, a period when the company regularly collaborated with outside designers before transitioning to entirely in-house production. These decades produced some of the brand's most collectible pieces, and vintage examples are today actively sought after by collectors worldwide. Karen Mobring's safari-influenced seating — including the Diana, Natura and Amiral chairs — captures the organic, relaxed spirit of the era, while Noboru Nakamura's Bore chair and Lundgren's Pixi lounge chair round out the most coveted 1970s offerings. The 1980s brought a sharper, more industrial sensibility through Niels Gammelgaard's work in wire and tubular steel, among them the Enetri shelf, the wire Jarpen chairs and the foldable Ted chair, as well as Tord Björklund's Skye chaise and Klinte armchair.

Beyond these core collaborators, IKEA has worked with some of the most significant names in 20th-century design. Kai Kristiansen, Ettore Sottsass, Verner Panton and Mats Theselius all produced pieces for the brand, and rare examples of their IKEA work are among the most prized finds for collectors today. More recently, collaborations with designers such as Ilse Crawford, Tom Dixon and Hella Jongerius through its IKEA PS (“post scriptum”) collections have continued to push the brand into more expressive territory.

IKEA has also shaped retail culture itself. Its sprawling, maze-like store format — introduced in Älmhult in 1958 — transformed shopping into an experience, complete with room vignettes, a Swedish café and a one-way path designed to inspire. The brand has since expanded to more than 60 countries, while its annual catalog, once one of the most widely distributed publications in the world, became a cultural artifact in its own right.

IKEA continues to balance its founding tension: mass production in the service of good design. As Kamprad once put it, "to design a desk which may cost $1,000 is easy for a furniture designer, but to design a functional and good desk which shall cost $50 can only be done by the very best."

Find a range of vintage and collectible IKEA chairs, shelving and furniture on 1stDibs.

Good antique rugs and vintage rugs have made their way into homes across the globe, becoming fixtures used for comfort, prayer and self-expression, so choosing the right area rug is officially a universal endeavor.

In modern usage, “carpet” typically denotes a wall-to-wall floor cushioning that is fixed to the floor. Rugs, on the other hand, are designed to cover a specific area and can easily be moved to new locations. However, the terms are interchangeable in many parts of the world, and, in the end, it won’t matter what you decide to call it.

It’s well known that a timeless Persian rug or vintage Turkish rug can warm any interior, but there are lots of other styles of antique rugs to choose from when you're endeavoring to introduce fresh colors and textures to a bedroom or living room.

Moroccan Berber rugs are not all about pattern. In fact, some of the most striking examples are nearly monochrome. But what these rugs lack in complexity, they make up for in brilliant color and subtle variation. Moroccan-style interiors can be mesmerizing — a sitting room of this type might feature a Moroccan rug, carved wooden screens and a tapestry hung behind the sofa.

Handwoven kilim rugs, known for their wealth of rich colors and unique weaving tradition, are pileless: Whereas the Beni Ourain rugs of Morocco can be described as dense with a thick surface or pile, an authentic kilim rug is thin and flat. (The term “kilim” is Turkish in origin, but this type of textile artistry is practiced all across the Balkans, throughout the Arab world and elsewhere.) 

When it comes to eye-catching floor coverings, the distinctive “medallion” pattern of Oushak rugs has two types of rounded shapes alternating against a rich red or blue background created with natural dyes, while the elaborate “star” pattern involves large eight-pointed shapes in diagonal rows alternating with diamonds.  

If you’re looking for something unexpected, find a runner rug that pops in your hallway or on your stairs. Dig for dazzling geometric patterns in our inventory of mid-century modern rugs and carpets, which includes works designed by the likes of Swedish textile masters Märta Måås-Fjetterström, Marianne Richter and other artisans. 

Carpets and rugs have been around for thousands of years. Prehistoric humans turned to animal skin, wool and fur to craft simple fabrics to soften hard terrain. A 2016 study suggests that "cave lions" were hunted for exactly this purpose, and that decorating your cave with their pelts may have conferred strength and prestige. Although many of these early textiles are still in existence, tracing their precise origins is difficult. Carpets quickly became such a valuable trade commodity that the weavings could easily travel far from their places of origin. 

The oldest known carpet was found in southern Siberia. (It may have traveled there from Persepolis in Iran.) For the flat-weave floor rugs crafted by Native Americans, cotton was the primary material before sheep’s wool was introduced in the 16th century. In Europe, carpet-making was fundamental to folk art, and Asian carpets imported to European countries were at one time considered a precious luxury and not intended to remain permanently on the floor. 

With the variety of area rugs and carpets rolled out for you on 1stDibs — a collection that includes traditional, modern, minimalist rugs and other coverings of all kinds — things will be looking up whenever you’re looking down.