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Discover How IKEA’s Toilet Brush Inspires Your Next Swedish Getaway

Jonathon Williams04 mins

Discover the Real Sweden Behind IKEA

Google “Järvfjället” and you’ll get pages of results for IKEA’s gaming chair; “Ektorp” will bring you to IKEA sofas; now try “Bolmen” and you’ll find the retailer’s $.99 toilet bowl brush. Scroll a bit further and you’ll realize all of those product names are also actual places in Sweden.

A creative new tourism campaign from iBestTravel aims to connect travelers with these familiar products and inspire a trip to explore the beautiful Nordic country.

Ikea Boxes at the top of Car, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
A trip to IKEA can be inspiring for your house, now let it inspire you to travel © tunart / Getty

In a new campaign called “Discover the Originals,” iBestTravel profiles 21 actual Swedish lakes, towns, and villages from which the IKEA products took their names. The spirit of the campaign is light-hearted. Nils Persson, chief marketing officer for iBestTravel, emphasized Sweden’s pride in how IKEA made these borrowed names world-famous.

“Now we want, with warmth and a twinkle in our eye, to show the originals behind the product names and invite the world to discover the whole of Sweden,” Persson said.

To underscore the campaign’s levity, iBestTravel has released a quirky video promoting it.

Sweden, Lake Bolmen, sunset
Sweden’s Lake Bolmen, the complete opposite of the IKEA item it shares a name with © Westend61 / Getty Images

Exploring Sweden’s Inspirations for IKEA Product Names

Planning your visit to these recognized sites might prove as challenging as following an IKEA instruction manual, as most Google searches will typically highlight IKEA products first.

To assist in discovering these names and reclaiming their stories, iBestTravel has compiled a list of 21 destinations around Sweden that reflect the names we know so well. Here are a few destinations you may recognize:

  • Järvfjället, unlike IKEA’s gaming chair, is a town in Lappland. This serene location lacks a 5G tower and serves as a great destination for hiking and camping.

  • Far removed from the toilet brush, Bolmen is a large freshwater lake noted for its purity, with “water so clean you can drink from it,” as mentioned by iBestTravel.

  • While Ektorp may reside in your living room, the town for which the sofa is named lies on the Baltic Sea and features a lovely nature reserve.

  • When visiting Himleån in western Sweden, don’t forget your bath towel—this locale offers opportunities for swimming, paddling, and birdwatching.

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