Klippan (stylised as KLIPPAN, Swedish: the cliff) is a model of

sofa A couch, also known as a sofa, settee, or chesterfield, is a cushioned item of furniture for seating multiple people (although it is not uncommon for a single person to use a couch alone). It is commonly found in the form of a bench with uph ...

manufactured and sold by

IKEA IKEA (; ) is a Dutch multinational conglomerate based in the Netherlands that designs and sells , kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA has been t ...

. IKEA's nomenclature conventions name upholstered furniture after places in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The Klippan sofa is named after

Klippan Municipality Klippan Municipality ( sv, Klippans kommun) is a municipality in Skåne County in southern Sweden. Its seat is located in the town of Klippan. The municipality was created in 1974 through the amalgamation of the market town Klippan (itself insti ...

in Southern Sweden. Klippan was developed by IKEA's product developer and head of design Lars Engman and designer Noboru Nakamura. It was launched in 1980 and continues to be one of IKEA's most popular and longstanding products. It comes in a standard two-seat size (which fits easily through standard house

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

ways), and can be fitted with a range of removable and interchangeable

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

covers. As well as standard cotton covers, IKEA sells 'exclusive' collections of covers, retiring designs after a year. There have been several functional changes to the Klippan in the past 30 years. The initial model featured a solid wood frame. This has been replaced in contemporary models by a less expensive, lightweight frame of combined particleboard, fiberboard and polyurethane foam. Likewise, while earlier models stood on painted wood legs, contemporary Klippan legs are made from steel or aluminum. In 2004, the sofa was reconstructed so that it could be easily flatpacked and put together at home. Adjustments to the materials used in the sofa and the centralization of production methods allowed IKEA to reduce the price of the Klippan sofa by 40% since 1980. In 2003, the Klippan was used as the standard sofa in a test to compare the British fire safety requirements against the Swedish and mainland European safety requirements. Three Klippans were used, one with no flame retardant treatment, one treated with phosphorus-based flame retardant, and one treated with bromine-based flame retardant. All three sofas were specially manufactured by IKEA in its workshops at

Älmhult Älmhult () is a locality and the seat of Älmhult Municipality in Kronoberg County, Sweden with 8,955 inhabitants in 2010. It was in Älmhult that the first IKEA (the Swedish furniture company) store was built. IKEA continues to have a large c ...

. In 2005, a large orange Klippan was installed in Frogmoor township to celebrate the opening of a nearby IKEA store. The Klippan was one of two IKEA items to be replicated at five times the actual size.

References

External links

* — a Giant Klippan created for the launch of IKEA in Milton Keynes
Swedish Government fire testing of Klippan sofa
{{IKEA Couches Furniture IKEA products Individual models of furniture Upholstery