IKEA's blue stores with a yellow logo on the facade around the world are reminiscent of Sweden. The global company has a distinctly Swedish identity and promotes the concept of "democratic design" on a broad front. IKEA also uses other positively charged words like equality and justice. Is this based on a social pathos or crass calculations? Is it about "Swedish design" or a kind of globalized aesthetic? The aim of the project is to study IKEA with a focus on the 1980s and 1990s: a time when the symbolic connection to Sweden was strengthened. Can IKEA be seen as Sweden's myth of itself - a kind of national self-image that does not correspond to reality? The company's style program and a selection of collections are studied from IKEA's enormous production. The subject is discussed in the light of the concepts of "nation branding" and "storytelling". Although the company has played an important role in Swedish society, there is little research on IKEA, but especially few humanistic studies. For over fifty years, the mass media have provided information about the company, which in Sweden is regarded as a kind of national treasure. The fact that there is not more design history research on IKEA's aesthetics is surprising, but makes studies all the more important. IKEA is a feature of the Swedish home's history of ideas, but also one of Sweden's public faces, and it is important to investigate the image it gives to the outside world.