IKEA have jumped on the crazy concept café trend currently taking over London; running a free bed and breakfast pop-up in Shoreditch this week – Mon 18th till tomorrow, Wed 20th. The kings of Scandi flat-packed furniture are offering speedy bookers the opportunity to eat a traditional Swedish breakfast between 7am and noon, and nibble on assorted pastries come PM, all whilst tucked up in one of their 9 single / double beds… sound strange? It was a bit.

Paul and I were lucky enough to get a booking and headed down this morning to see what it was about. Arriving at 9am, we were firstly asked to pick from breakfast menu, offering anything from Swedish cheeses on crisp breads to hot Swedish waffles with an assortment of toppings, then asked to pick from a pillow menu (memory foam, soft or firm). We were then faced with a choice of different IKEA beds where we would be eating breakfast.

The PR stunt seemed as though it was aimed at curious industry types rather than any passing customer due to its Mon-Wed opening hours, and could have been more upbeat with music and inviting staff. The interior aspect we liked was the wall vinyls above each bed, communicating different ways to improve your sleep, rather than a shameless plug of product name, quickly followed by a price, and the number of miles to your local store.

All in all, it was an interesting move by a retail giant attempting to be locally relevant through an east London trend while attempting to replicate some of the surprise delivered when IKEA collaborated with AirBnB, and has proven successful – handling 2000 requests for the 300 reservations available.