If you pride yourself on only bagging the most exclusive pieces, both for your wardrobe and your home, you might have previously professed that IKEA wasn’t for you.

The Swedish homeware brand is synonymous with cookie-cutter furniture and flat pack storage at purse strings-friendly prices, but in the last few years it has worked hard to align itself with some of the biggest names in fashion. The exclusive ranges it’s created have given us another reason to the store, in addition to stocking up on meatballs and recreating that 500 Days of Summer scene.

From the Off-White x IKEA collab which was announced two years ago (and has been building huge amounts of hype since), to the brand’s plans to work with Solange Knowle’s cultural hub Saint Heron, we’ve been watching this space for a while. 

Now, for the fifth annual IKEA Art Event, it has been announced that designers including Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton have collaborated with the store to produce a range of impactful artworks intended to be used diversely, as rugs, wall hangings or art pieces in their own right.

In addition to Abloh, the new collection will include work from leading designers Chiaozza, Craig Green, Misaki Kawai, Seulgi Lee, Noah Lyon, Filip Pagowski and Supakitch.

The aim is to make the diverse and aspirational works of these designers more accessible to the average shopper at a more affordable price point. 

Each designer has submitted one design, and although all very different, there’s a uniting process of using wool and other natural materials in an avant-garde fashion, using themes like modern design and street culture to create something disruptive and unique.

Speaking about his involvement in the collection, Abloh, said: “I wanted an ironic take on the traditional attitude to furnishing where the living room is just a showroom, not somewhere you sit. The parental ‘don’t ruin the furniture’ kind of thing I think has really impacted how younger people think.”

Abloh’s design has been highly-anticipated, and it features a statement ‘Keep Off’ slogan over a traditional, swirling pattern. It’s an exciting nod towards the wider homeware collection that he will release with IKEA later in the year.

Although Abloh’s design will only be available online, most of the limited-edition collection of woven artworks will be available in-store and online from May. See more about the collection here.

Images: IKEA