They are some of the most recognizable living rooms in popular culture: The Simpsons‘ iconic couch, the city chic living room from Friends, even Joyce Byers’ living room from Stranger Things. You see them, you recognize them almost instantly. Now, though, if you wanted to recreate them in your own home it turns out IKEA not only has you covered — they are a home furnishings store after all — but they’ve already recreated those spaces themselves for a new ad campaign.
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As reported by Adweek, IKEA in the United Arab Emirates has taken the three iconic living rooms and recreated them using only IKEA furnishings. The campaign takes each of the spaces and puts them together down to the smallest of details using pretty much only things you can buy at IKEA. It’s a feat that took quite a bit of time to complete, as the designers behind the campaign had to go through hundreds of items to find the ones that would fit.
“The IKEA team worked closely with the creatives for months,” Vinot Jayan, managing director for IKEA in the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, and Oman said. “They went through hundreds of items to find the perfect pieces that would bring those iconic rooms. It was a great collaborative effort that led up to a stunning result. A true testament of What IKEA represents: a place where everyone can bring wherever they see or have to life.”
Now, the rooms IKEA created aren’t exact clones — after all, they have to work with what they’ve got and in the case of The Simpsons, that living room is animated, not real — but they get pretty darn close. The Friends recreation is strikingly close, while The Simpsons room looks almost exactly like what you’d expect a real-life interpretation to look like. You can get a better look at the spaces on the campaigns site here.
These IKEA creations aren’t the first time that a location from The Simpsons has gotten a bit of a real world treatment, either. Last summer, a real-life Kwik-E-Mart opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, stocked with treats and merchandise with a Simpsons-centric theme. The location is part of Myrtle Beach’s Broadway at the Beach.
“Broadway at the Beach is like no other location. It really draws a lot of foot traffic, walking around, and I think it’s the perfect sort of first place. I think the Simpsons would come to Myrtle Beach for a vacation,” said Mark Cornell, Senior VP, Attractions Development for SimEx-Iwerks Entertainment.
What do you think about IKEA’s living room recreations? Let us know in the comments below.
