The History of IKEA’s LACK Table

IKEA’s iconic LACK table debuted in 1979. Vivianne Sjölin, IKEA’s range coordinator at the time, felt that the furniture giant had too many large, heavy tables. She wanted to create a table that was small, colorful, and could be easily moved around in the home. She also hoped customers might impulsively purchase these small tables as “souvenirs” when visiting IKEA stores. She told Jan Hellzén, who was responsible for IKEA’s coffee tables at the time, and his colleague, Tomas Paulsson, who was in charge of dining tables, about her idea. The two men had reportedly just attended a furniture fair in Milan, Italy. There, they had been impressed by a small, sturdy table they’d seen in a window display. Everyone was interested in pursuing the idea, so Hellzén made a sketch and the model workshop created a prototype out of particleboard. However, it was quite heavy and when IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad inquired about the price, Paulsson and Hellzén gave him an improvised price that he thought was far too high. Kamprad responded that they should make the table out of board-on-frame and keep the price low. They complied, and once the prototype was finalized, Vivianne Sjölin chose the color — or more accurately, she decided on a range of four colors along with white for a total of 5 color options. On May 18, 1979, the LACK table debuted at IKEA. It was then added to the IKEA catalog in 1981. Today, these small, colorful, and simple LACK tables are still sold at IKEA stores; the LACK range has also been expanded to include a series of shelves, TV benches, and nesting tables of various sizes.