PS we love you!

In 1995 we launched our first IKEA PS collection, together with a simple idea: Democratic Design. Good design, great function, at a low price for everyone are dimensions we still follow this to this day.

The new IKEA PS 2026 collection is our tenth collection to date. It was created with a focus on playful functionality: simple, useful things that bring joy to everyday living. "This IKEA PS collection is all about challenging and being playful while staying simple and creating interesting design. I hope you're as excited about these products as we are," says creative leader Maria O'Brian. You'll have to wait until May for the full reveal of the collection, but here's a look at three soon-to-be favourites in the meantime!

Marta's seating with a smile

Why sit still on a bench when you can rock on it? And even better, with a friend! Designer Marta Krupińska's rocking bench puts the 'fun' in functional. Made from solid pine and with space for two, this fun seat was inspired by celebrations. Marta imagined the fun of Germany's Oktoberfest, where people sit together on long benches, singing and clinking beer tankards. "I wanted it to be a bit like a party, like singing together."

Like a traditional bench, the design is modest and streamlined, but don't let its simple form fool you. The rockers needed to be strong enough to support the long bench under the stress of weight and movement. During the first attempts, the arched rockers fell completely flat under the weight as Marta and the team of IKEA engineers tested it. Thanks to a technique that involves splitting a beam of wood, then glueing it back together with the grain reversed it's now strong enough to support a whole lot of rocking.

“The most exciting part of designing is when you get the brief and go back to your desk and those ideas – I call them butterflies – come to you. You just want to catch them, but they are flying so fast and multiplying, so you have to make decisions.”

– Marta Krupińska
Designer

Mikael's air chair

Inspired by one of the most notable failures in IKEA design history - inflatable furniture - designer Mikael Axelsson was fascinated by upholstery, or the lack of it. Working together with the team of IKEA designers, product developers and engineers, he thinks they've finally found just the right formula for air-filled furniture. With a foam cover and carbon steel frame, this easy chair is stable, durable and full of our favourite material; air.

While the blobular furniture of the '90s was prone to dust, deflation and sliding at the blow of a vacuum cleaner, the PS 2026 easy chair is much more robust. Its sturdy steel frame helps keep it grounded to its spot and acts as a mould for improved comfort and stability. The textile cover eliminates squeaking and sliding, and the interior chambers within the inflatable cushion and backrest create shape and support.

Inspired by tyres, Mikael borrowed a tractor tyre to learn how air behaves, compared to conventional foam filling. "With foam furniture we pretty much know the measurements and seating angles. But with air, just by sitting on the front, the air moves back and changes the seating angle," explains Mikael.

The chair comes with its own handy foot pump, and according to the designer, should take around five songs to fully inflate. When deflated, the chair fits neatly into a box not much bigger than a flatpack package. "IKEA is all about democratising design, and in that way, air is the perfect material to work with," says Mikael. "You minimise the amount of material and we can ship it flat." As this easy chair proves, less is definitely more.

"My initial idea was to create a metal frame with a balloon trapped inside. It not only makes it firmer and sturdier, but also gives it a more playful expression, like a balloon bulging out."

– Mikael Axelsson
Designer

Lex's bright idea

At IKEA, we love multifunctionality, and this lamp designed by Alexander "Lex" Pott is no exception. This simple form is no less than an uplighter, spotlight and reading lamp all in one. Intrigued by the geometry of a cylinder, Lex took a chop saw and set to work, cutting into steel. He realised that by cutting at 45° angles, he could create joints that would allow the lamp's head and base to rotate with a few simple twists, creating multiple lighting options.

Colour plays a key role in the latest PS collection, as well as in Lex's own design DNA, influenced by his creative upbringing. His mother is a sculpter and his father, an artist. Working within creative leader Maria O'Brian's curated palette, Lex was conscious that the colours of the uplighter not only had to work with the rest of the collection, but also in many different spaces and settings too. He eventually landed on three colours. "I chose a warm, light yellow, which really lights up a space and adds a subtle touch of colour, then cobalt blue, because it's timeless, with a lot of history. Finally, I chose a dark Bordeaux red because it's a more classical, warm tone that is versatile enough to fit with many different ambiences," explains Lex.

The IKEA PS 2026 collection marks Lex's IKEA debut. Working from his small, independent design studio in Rotterdam, the lamp is just one of the products he's designed for the new PS collection. "It's a dream come true, and a real milestone," he admits. "Plus, now my mother really understands what I'm doing because design can sometimes be a bit niche or exclusive, but IKEA is a household name." We think Lex's mum will be thrilled.

"There should be joy in how you use the objects you surround yourself with in daily life."

– Lex Pott
Designer