Ikea was founded in 1943, and its first showroom didn’t open until 1953. Since, though, it’s become an unstoppable furniture juggernaut hellbent on making it into everyone’s living room. This map shows how unrelenting that’s been.
Not dissimilar to a map showing Apple’s worldwide retail takeover—though arguably this Ikea one looks a hell of a lot nicer—it’s quite astonishing to see the pace of Ikea’s rise, especially around the mid-00’s. It’s also amazing to think that it took until 1985 to arrive in the US. [Mike Barker]
