‘Hallucinating inside a Scandinavian kindergarten’: my night alone in Ikea

More than 5,000 people logged on for the chance to sleep over in Ikea’s Sydney pop-up; I was one of the few who scored a $19.95 stay in a house kitted out with the Post Scriptum (PS) collection’s 10th edition. The company billed it as the “ultimate designer staycation” and the four remaining nights sold out in under a minute.

It took 48 hours and 12 staff to assemble and style the 105 Ikea items, which included an easy chair that had to be inflated with a pump I later found tucked inside a coffee table. On arrival I felt like I was hallucinating inside a Scandinavian kindergarten: green sofas, blue dining chairs and a red clock shaped like a bent tube.

Six hollow-eyed, pastel face masks hung in the entertaining area and gave me a vague discomfort, while prices ranged from $4.99 for alarming wall decorations to $799 for a three-seat sofabed.

Australia, Sydney

ikea, sydney, pop-up, ps collection, post scriptum, staycation, designer staycation, sofa bed, coffee table, home decor