The world’s largest furniture retailer will open a new store at Warringah Mall next month – but this one will be a little different to the 30,000 square-metre whopper at Tempe that we’re used to. It’ll be the first “small-format” showroom in Australia, at just 100 square metres, marking a shift in the company’s expansion strategy and meaning no more getting lost in the Ikea maze, emerging blinking into the daylight a few hours later with a new kitchen and collection of fresh bed linen. Read more, ‘The Ikea 2019 Catalogue is Here- These Are Our Favourite Products.’

Customers won’t be able to take purchases home but will get help designing their kitchens and bedrooms at the small-format store.

They can sit down for a consultation with an Ikea employee, who will help them plan and build their future bedroom or kitchen. Read more, ‘Here’s How You Can Makeover Your Bedroom For Less than $100.’ Customers can still order the rest of Ikea’s range, but the focus will be on these two rooms. Once they’ve decided on their future furnishings, customers can have the flatpacks delivered to their homes or pick them up from a store.

The Scandi-style space will also have planning stations and tablets to help customers build their rooms step-by-step.

For now, the store is being opened as part of a four-month trial, but if it’s a success it could pave the way for up to eight more similar stores around Sydney and expansion to Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth as the Swedish giant aims to woo customers who increasingly shop online and might be reluctant to travel to its sprawling stores.