Flat pack to the future: how Ikea shaped our lives | Nell Frizzell

Thirty years ago Ikea opened its first store in the UK. It’s had a huge impact on our homes – and us, says Nell FrizzellI have measured out my life in coffee spoons and mattresses, bath mats and bookcases, cushions and double duvets. These touchstones of my life may seem sporadic – the cooking pot I went off to university with, the first towel I bought (rather than stole from my mother), the rucksack I wore during my pregnancy, the changing table that will, I hope, one day serv