Learn to Speak Ikea Like a Native

Today’s Guardian features a story that serves as a Rosetta stone unlocking the secrets of Ikea’s cryptic naming system. Sofas, coffee tables, bookshelves, media storage and doorknobs are named after places in Sweden (Klippan, Malmö); beds, wardrobes and...

Carefully couched terms

This week, the New York Times featured a story on the befuddlement among furniture executives (*) over what to name their furniture collections. Furniture styles no longer have clear-cut delineations–eclectic tastes and mix-and-match designs have blurred the...