Lurvig is a 62-item collection which covers the basic pets’ needs of sleeping, eating, playing, traveling and walking. The range includes dog beds, leashes, bowls, cat hideouts, and toys designed in collaboration with veterinarians, in order to ensure that the aesthetically pleasing items are taking care of the pets’ comfort and safety, and also to make sure that different behaviour patterns and habits were being accounted for. "It's really important to use an animal's natural needs and behaviours – like how they sleep, eat or play– as a starting point," explains the Valencis-based designer Imma Bermudéz.

"Dogs will definitely chew on their toys and bring in dirt from their daily walks," she continued. "Cats will definitely scratch on most surfaces and are sensitive to smell and texture. So safe, durable materials are very important."

Another significant design directive seems to be that of taking cues from IKEA’s iconic furniture elements such as the Solsta Sofa, or creating inserts into the very popular Kallax shelving units that cats anyway seem to adore! The pet cushion, however, seems to be the most innovative one from IKEA. Designed to be filled up with the owners’ own old clothes, blankets, and towels the pet cushion becomes a ‘friendly-smelling’ and cosy bed for the pet to snuggle up into. 

A standalone cat house (with a textured scratching panel) that functions as a side table, a cat-scratching mat that can be wrapped around a table leg, a pet couch that folds out into a larger bed, are some of the other interesting products from the collection. 

Of course, as all IKEA products, the range of pet furniture too scores high on aesthetics and pricing. “It was quite important for us to have a pet range that fits into our normal furniture range,” says Barbara Schäfer, IKEA’s Product Risk Assessment Leader leading the veterinary partnership – and who as a pet owner herself, believes that what was available earlier, wasn’t good enough. 

The Lurvig range, however, is not limited to furniture. They have feeding bowls, reflective leads and collars, litter pans, pet carriers, play tunnels and such other accessories and add-ons too. 

A feeding bowl, for example, an easily available and relatively simple accessory, has been designed with careful thought at IKEA. The animals’ food habits have been incorporated into the design. A specially designed shallow bowl guides dogs to eat slowly. This has come out of the observations of their eating behaviours. “Cats are generally good at regulating how much food they eat, however many dog breeds tend to overeat,” explains Bermudéz. “That's how the slow feed bowl became part of the Lurvig range. Breaking up a bowl's internal surface area prevents dogs from consuming their food in one or two gulps.”

And that’s how IKEA has set foot into the new market – trying to satisfy the demand for reasonably priced, well-researched and awesome pet products!