LACK coffee table, white stained oak effect, 118x78 cm

How low can the price go?

Vivianne Sjölin, the range coordinator at IKEA, thought that IKEA had too many big, heavy tables made of wood, metal and glass. Vivianne wanted to see nice, little, colourful tables that were easy to place with flexible use, and that customers might buy on impulse, almost like a souvenir.

Back home in Älmhult, Jan Hellzén and Tomas Paulsson were in the samples room talking about tables when Ingvar Kamprad stopped by, pointed at the table and asked the price. Tomas and Jan improvised a price of 298 kronor. Ingvar didn’t like the price, so he suggested that it could be made out of board-on-frame, the same technique as interior doors, and it can’t cost more than 75 kronor. Tomas was familiar with board-on-frame; so when Jan visited the factory, and product development began in earnest.

In 1979, the table came into the range and the price was 78 kronor. LACK was launched in the 1981 catalogue, by which time the price had gone up to 89 kronor. Everyone was happy; apart from Ingvar, who thought the table was far too expensive.

You can still buy the LACK table at IKEA, and at a lower price than the original. Ever cost-conscious, Ingvar Kamprad would probably have been happy with that.

The image is from the 1985 IKEA Catalogue that says: “The table for all your rooms.”