Ramadan Delights at IKEA Qatar
IKEA celebrated its seventh anniversary on 12 March with the launch of its much-awaited Ramadan collection, LJUV. The event was attended by HE Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to the State of Qatar Anders Bengtsson along with management of the IKEA store, media guests and customers.
The new Ramadan collection from IKEA is named after the Swedish word ‘delightful’, LJUV. The collection is a first of its kind in collaboration with the Middle Eastern designer, Nada Debs. Offering unique Ramadan home décor pieces that combine traditional Middle Eastern patterns with a Scandinavian twist, the collection is perfect to add a Ramadan vibe to your existing home décor.
Scale had talked to Lebanese designer Nada Debs and we bring some of the key points she had mentioned before.
“We wanted to bring something new and something affordable to our customers. And we wanted to bring in IKEA Democratic Design: form, function, quality and sustainability at a low price. This resulted in the LJUV collection. This is our first ever collaboration with a Middle Eastern designer and hence a historical moment for the stores in the Middle East,” said Iyad Hudaib, Marketing Manager, IKEA, as he spoke to the press at the reveal.
Nada Debs lives and works in Beirut. She grew up in Japan and studied design in the US. Her work spans from furniture design to craft, art, fashion, and interiors. What ties her work together is her ability to distil culture and craftsmanship to create pieces of emotional resonance. She has a hands-on approach and understands those good relationships and a collaborative attitude are key to achieving good results. Her collaborative attitude is one of the reasons why she is working with IKEA for the collection. LJUV was an on-the-floor design process with Nada and the suppliers and hence a collaboration of multiple minds with Nada’s designs.
Those already familiar with Nada’s work know that she likes to mix material and patterns, such as wood and metals, in beautiful ways and works closely with handicraft techniques and treats each object as unique. To reach the many young IKEA customers, the team focuses on making the collection more affordable, light and flat packed. They weave together Nada’s ideas, skills, and techniques with the five dimensions of the Scandinavian firm IKEA.
The collection is about family gatherings, holiday traditions and festival cheer and Nada explains how the Middle East traditions play a major role in her designs for IKEA while trying out different combinations of the signature geometric patterns.
“In the Middle East, the family is more than just mom, dad and siblings. It’s all about the extended family — grandmothers, aunts, nieces, cousins and beloved friends! People are always inviting each other to evening feasts during Ramadan. For me, this time of the year is about compassion, empathy, and generosity,” says Nada.
The collection consists of low seating floor cushions and low glass tables. It is a colourful selection of patterns and textiles that together with the accessories creates a festive modern look and feeling. Tableware in hexagon shapes with the design in white that coordinates and sets the table in a beautiful way.
“The glass table has the traditional star pattern and when being lighted up it gives sparkles all over the floor and it looks magical and is my favourite piece in all of this,” says Nada.
