Magical Patterns — 60 Years of Swedish Textile Design
- Anna Lilli Garai
- Oct 21
- 2 min read
Location: Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh
Date: July 18, 2025 – January 17, 2026
Project: Touring exhibition from IKEA Museum
Why it Matters: Brings six decades of Swedish textile design into focus through pattern, print, and everyday history
Magical Patterns is now open at Dovecot Studios, showing 180 fabrics from IKEA’s textile archive. The exhibition looks at how simple patterns became a key part of Swedish design over the past six decades.
The story begins in the early 1960s, when designers Bitten Højmark and Inger Nilsson introduced new color systems and printing techniques. Their work pushed IKEA away from quiet tones toward brighter, more expressive designs that found their way into ordinary homes.
Some of these fabrics became classics. Inez Svensson’s RANDIG BANAN was designed in 1985, forgotten for years, then rediscovered in 2013. Ida Pettersson Preutz’s ANNIKEN—a green broccoli print on a pink striped background—shows IKEA’s mix of humor and clarity in design.
A section of the exhibition focuses on 10-gruppen, the design collective founded in 1971. Their bold, graphic approach reshaped IKEA’s textiles and set a new direction for the brand.
The exhibition is organized by theme—nature, graphic, storytelling, fantasy—allowing the fabrics to speak on their own. Visitors can follow how ideas move through time, from one generation of designers to the next.
Curator Anna Sandberg Falk describes the early textile team as one that “dared to be different.” For Celia Joicey, Director of Dovecot Studios, these fabrics show how pattern can shape spaces just as much as furniture.
The exhibition is inviting visitors to spend time with six decades of IKEA’s textile history in one place.
