With so many versatile designs it offers, you’d think that IKEA may one day run out of ideas, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The company has just unveiled an inflatable new chair, which it says is “inspired by one of the most notable failures in IKEA design history.” For the uninitiated, we are talking about IKEA’s experiments with inflatable furniture, which did not take to the air in the 1980s and 20 years later, either.
IKEA has made the inflatable chair the centrepiece of its upcoming PS 2026 collection, which also happens to be returning after a nine-year hiatus. Learning from the past fiascos, IKEA has reimagined the air-filled form with Mikael Axellson, who has trapped the silhouette in a carbon steel frame and textile upholstery.
The hybrid construction turns away from the quintessential fully plastic designs of the 1990s. In doing so, the chair retains the sought-after lightweight efficiency of the inflatable furniture that is sought-after while addressing the valid criticisms around durability and comfort.
The inflatable easy chair has been an obsession for the company since the 1990s. After decades, Axelsson decided to give it another go. He sought out to find out whether air as a material could deliver the same comfort as foam. On this quest, he hand-welded 20 prototypes, which even included a tractor tire, before reaching the solution: two separate adjustable air chambers held within a tubular metal frame, lending it stability and compact form factor.
The chair comes flat-packed in a deep emerald green fabric, with a foot pump. Now the result is a comfortable seat that you wouldn’t expect from something made of air. This innovative system eliminates sagging that haunted the earlier takes, while resolving the squeaking and slipping of the typical inflatable furniture. The IKEA inflatable chair sits closer to its conventional upholstered sisters, but with significantly less material and weight.
The 2026 iteration is part of the 10th edition of the IKEA PS collection, an iconic series launched in 1995 to challenge traditional notions of high-end design by making experimental ideas accessible to the masses. Alongside the inflatable chair, the collection features a transformable lamp by Dutch design Lex Pott, and a rocking wooden bench by IKEA’s Marta Krupińska.
The PS 2026 Easy Chair blends nostalgia and technical refinement to offer a piece that truly turns heads and is miles ahead of its other offerings. The complete IKEA PS 2026 collection is slated for global release in May, but you can glimpse the inflatable chair at the ongoing Milan Design Week.
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