The elements of the IKEA model, including a playroom for children, a long, winding path through room displays, flat-pack furniture, self-service, portable furniture in small sizes for easier transportation, fewer items that needed to be ordered, and a restaurant, came about through the learning from the previous five years of operating the IKEA Store Concept Kungens Kurva. After the store burned down in 1970, the manager, Hans Ax, was given the flexibility to incorporate all the learning into the design of the new store, which became the largest IKEA store at the time, at 55,200 square metres, the size of eight football pitches.

The opening hours of the store were also designed to suit customers and workers alike, opening at 11am and closing at 7pm, which meant that the morning rush hour was over before the store opened, and customers could shop after they finished work for the day. For part-time IKEA workers, the hours were more flexible and worked around their other commitments.

Although the company had moved away from the original mail order, which was more costly to process than bringing people to the store, IKEA continued with the catalogue. Catalogues were produced and distributed throughout the locality of each store as well as being available in the store. They served to tempt customers, who then would be taken on a journey through different set-piece room displays featuring bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms, each at different price points and sizes, so customers could see how furniture would look in real environments. They would write down the warehouse location numbers of the items they wanted to purchase and could pick up smaller accessories as they journeyed round the store.

After the showroom area, there was a restaurant serving Småland specialties, particularly the meatballs. The restaurant, too, was self-service, designed so that customers could easily clear up after themselves, thereby saving money on the cleaning staff required. After eating, customers would continue through displays of smaller housewares and kitchen accessories before arriving at the large warehouse, where they could pick up their items before taking them to the checkout.

This concept became a fixed predetermined design that future stores would have to follow. It stipulated, for example, that living room interiors would be immediately located after the entrance, just as there would be a shop after the check-out selling Swedish food delicacies. If store managers wished to alter any part of the concept, they would have to ask permission.