The IKEA PS GULLHOLMEN rocking chair was born during a trip to Asia. Designer Maria Vinka was visiting a factory when she saw a pile of banana leaves on the floor. Banana leaves had long been one of Maria’s favourite materials, and suddenly there was a pile of waste leaves on the factory floor. Maria picked up the leaves, turned and twisted them, and started weaving them as if they were fabric. Could woven banana leaves be used for a piece of furniture?
Maria was originally thinking about children’s furniture, which stimulates the senses in several ways. But the result ended up being a rocking chair. Maria designed it so that it was comfortable to sit in, and also stackable – the latter to keep distribution costs down as much as possible.
“The effect of the beautiful, braided leaves makes the chair look almost hand-knitted,” she said later.
The rocking chair joined the IKEA range in February 2002 and was named IKEA PS GULLHOLMEN. It stayed in the catalogue until the 2010 edition.
Ingvar Kamprad liked GULLHOLMEN a lot, and once wrote: “One of our best-looking products ever! And even an old man can sit perfectly comfortably in it!”
