IKEA May Have Just Made the Funniest Plate You’ve Ever Seen — And Yes, You Need It
It’s specially made for the store’s signature dish.
Photo Courtesy of IKEA
Have you ever looked at a pot of meatballs and wished you could serve it with flair? IKEA just made a plate to do exactly that.
The global home and furniture store teamed up with Swedish designer Gustaf Westman for the first time to create a 12-piece holiday collection. The pieces are playful and unconventional, embracing Westman’s signature rounded shapes and pastels along with the traditional red and green of Christmas. The quirkiest item of them all? A serving plate for IKEA’s signature Swedish meatballs (or whatever meatballs you have on hand).
What is IKEA’s meatball plate?
IKEA’s new meatball plate is a trough-shaped serving dish a little over a foot long. It holds about a dozen meatballs, but you can use it for anything you want. IKEA suggests olives, cheese, desserts or sushi. Reddit is thinking about bitterballen or tubular foods like hot dogs or churros. (It looks like you could fit two of either in there.)
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Why did IKEA make a meatball plate?
Meatballs are a holiday tradition in Sweden and a staple at IKEA. The store has been serving them for 40 years and sells one billion annually. It’s added plant-based, chicken and salmon versions to its menu over the years. Yet this seems to be the world’s first dedicated meatball plate.
“I love designing objects for a specific function — it brings a touch of humour and makes them instantly easy to grasp,” Gustaf Westman says in a press release. “In Sweden, meatballs mean Christmas, and this plate is my way of honouring that tradition. The design is simple, lining up the meatballs so each one is visible, like they’re sitting on little thrones.”
For IKEA, the meatball plate makes perfect sense.
“We’ve always believed that the little things in life, like a perfectly round Swedish meatball, deserve big attention,” Maria O’Brian, Creative Leader at IKEA of Sweden, says. “This collaboration is about taking the traditions of gathering in the home and reimagining them through playful and unexpected designs. Together with Gustaf Westman, we’ve created a new design that is bold and expressive, using an unconventional shape and colour to give this Swedish staple a new stage.”
Practically speaking, you probably don’t need a meatball plate, but people are already getting a kick out of it online.
“This is so infuriatingly pointless that it circles back around into being hilarious, 10/10,” one Reddit user comments.
When can you buy IKEA’s meatball plate?
Westman’s collection will be available in IKEA stores on October 1 and online on October 3. The pieces will be sold as part of VINTERFINT, IKEA’s larger annual winter holiday collection.
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Meatballs are one of our favorite foods. They’re incredibly versatile. We can’t get enough of the classic preparations, like spaghetti marinara and meatball sandwiches—but we also love how easy it is to take their flavor in a totally new direction.
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