Ikea’s affordable flat-pack furniture has made it a favourite with families and first-time homeowners on a budget.
But the Swedish furniture manufacturer is also a highly-coveted name in the vintage furniture market.
Auctioneers and retailers in the UK, US and Sweden reported how Ikea furniture from the 1950s to the 1990s can sell for hundreds of times the original price.
A Skopa lounge chair, for example, which originally sold for £6 (not price adjusted) in the 1970s, is currently available to buy through online store Pamono for £522.
The Vilbert chair designed by futuristic Danish designer Verner Panton and released by Ikea in 1994. They were originally priced at £56. Last year Pamono sold one of the chairs for £840
Vintage Duett Hanging Lights in Orange, Yellow, and Red by Bent Gantzel Boysen for Ikea, available on Pamono for £516. A single light originally sold for £6 in the 1970s
Meanwhile a set of three Duett hanging lights, originally £18, will set you back £513.
And interest shows no sign of slowing down. ‘Over the past three years, prices have increased by more than 50 per cent,’ Anthony Barzilay Freund, editorial director of online marketplace 1stDibs, said in an interview with the Financial Times. He added: ‘The average list price of vintage Ikea seating models is $3,000.’
Part of the reason for its popularity is that Ikea’s mid-century designs mimicked the ‘clean modern freshness’ of furniture being made by big names like Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl, John Black of British auction house Sworders told the publication.
It means collectors are able to get their hands on something that looks like these classics but at a fraction of the price.
Pontus Silfverstolpe, founder of Barnebys, an online search site for auction houses around the world, added that Ikea also collaborated with leading designers, who have become sought-after in their own right.
Among the priciest pieces is an Ake chair, which was first sold for the equivalent of £9 in the 1950s. Last year Swedish auction house Bukowskis sold one of the chairs for 30,000 Swedish krona, or approximately £2,500
‘Ikea had some strong collaborations with some great designer both in-house (Karin Mobring and Gillis Lundgren) and outside Ikea(an example is danish designer Verner Panton),’ he told FEMAIL. It means pieces released as part of collaborations with contemporary designers like Tom Dixon and Virgil Abloh could be future classics.
He added much of the furniture produced at the time were made to high standards that make them valuable investment pieces.
‘There was a series of furniture and works of art that were copies, and made exactly in the same way, of some Swedish 18th century furniture,’ he continued. ‘Those are made with very high quality of craftsmanship but they become too expensive to produce, which is why they soon went out of production.’
Some of the most sought-after pieces are ones that flopped when they were first released, like the colourful Vilbert chair designed by futuristic Danish designer Verner Panton and released in 1994.
A Skopa lounge chair, pictured, which originally sold for £6 in the 1970s, is currently available to buy through online store Pamono for £522
While it failed to garner interest at the time, the Vilbert is now considered to be highly desirable.
Wava Carpenter, curatorial and editorial founder of Pamono, told how last year she sold one of the chairs, which were originally priced at around £60, for £840.
Among the priciest pieces is an original Ake chair, which was first sold for the equivalent of £9 in the 1950s.
Mr Silfverstolpe explained these are often wrongly attributed to Danish designer Philip Arctander, which drives up the price significantly.
There are reports of collectors paying up to £50,000 for a single chair, although this has not been verified.
However last year Swedish auction house Bukowskis sold one of the chairs for 30,000 Swedish krona, or approximately £2,500.