IKEA PS returns with blow-up chairs and a rocking bench

May 16. IKEA released the 2025 edition of its PS collection, the experimental line that runs every few years when the house wants to test an idea at scale. This one leans playful: a blow-up armchair in four colors, a wooden rocking bench wide enough for two, a modular storage unit that stacks or stands alone.

The line launched online and in flagships. Fifteen pieces total. Most are priced below £100, a few below £50. The blow-up chair is £45. The rocking bench is £89. IKEA's press release describes the collection as "designed for play," which is their way of saying they're betting on color and form over restraint.

The forensic beat

The blow-up chair is the standout. It's vinyl-coated PVC, inflatable in three minutes, packs flat when deflated. Four colors: lime, dusty pink, cobalt, charcoal. The silhouette reads mid-century lounge chair if you squint, but the material gives it away immediately. It's closer to a pool float than a Cassina.

The rocking bench is solid pine, untreated. Two-person width, gentle arc. The construction is clean for the price point: visible joinery, no veneer, no laminate. It's one of those pieces that feels right in a corner until you try to fit it through a doorway.

The modular storage reads like IKEA's usual play: stackable cubes, powder-coated steel frame, plastic bins that slot in. The twist is the color palette. They're running the same lime and dusty pink across the entire line, which is rare for a brand that usually defaults to white and birch.

The take

This is the fourth PS collection since the line started in 1995. The first one included Verner Panton's inflatable stool, which is now a MoMA piece. The bar was set high. This edition doesn't clear it, but it's not trying to. The stance here is lower: good-enough design that ships in volume and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

The blow-up chair won't last five years. The rocking bench might. The modular storage will outlive both but nobody will remember it. That's the contract. IKEA PS is the house testing ideas at a price point where failure is cheap.

Ships June. Online and in flagships first, then the rollout.