10 Times the IKEA POÄNG Chair Looked Definitively Chic

updated Jul 23, 2020
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(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

Confession time: When I wrote the ultimate IKEA shopping list, the POÄNG chair was mysteriously missing from the bunch. Truthfully, I turned my nose up at this chair for way too long. It was just so quintessentially and so obviously IKEA. But you know what? Every time I see the $100-ish POÄNG in person or in photos, the damn thing always looks amazing.

A little history to put everything in perspective: The POÄNG Chair is one of IKEA’s longest-running and best-selling designs. It was introduced in 1977 as the POEM (the name changed to POÄNG in 1992) and designed by Noboru Nakamura, a Japanese IKEA designer who was given the task of creating an “armchair for life.”

Because it has been around such a long while, the iterations you see here (including the matching footstool & of course the rocking chair version) might not be the same exact form you would buy today. But the clean lines, bent frame and gentle rocking motion should all be very familiar as soon as you bring it home and settle in for a sit.

Above: An IKEA POÄNG in a new, orange slipcover from Bemz, just one way to elevate the look.

(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
Kate & Chad’s Art-Filled Dwelling (Image credit: Alexis Buryk)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)
(Image credit: Apartment Therapy)

So… POÄNG: Love it or hate it?