If You Ever Wanted An IKEA Swedish Meatball Scented Candle, Now's Your Chance

It's hard not to love IKEA. Okay, so the furniture is a major pain in the you-know-what to assemble, and of course, there's that long and winding road you have to travel from Småland to the Swedish Food Market and on to those always-lengthy checkout lines. But like any good maze, in the center of each IKEA store lies something that's worth all the wandering ... a sit-down restaurant offering the best (okay, most likely the only) Swedish food in town. While just about everything on the menu is good eating, you really haven't had the true IKEA experience until you've dined on the Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam.

Unlike any other furniture store, and most restaurants, IKEA isn't the kind of place you swing by on a whim. There are only 52 IKEAS in the entire U.S., and only 27 states have any locations at all (via ScrapeHero). That means you often have to plan an entire day trip when that meatball craving strikes, although IKEA does sell frozen meatballs and take-home versions of all the fixings, and they even released their meatball recipe last year when most of its restaurants were closed due to quarantine. Still, it's not just the food, but the ambiance, that makes IKEA such a special place to dine. Well, IKEA is trying to do something about that, too. What would you say to a meatball-scented candle?

Yes, please, is what we'd say! Mickey D's Quarter Pounder candles, meh. Hardee's beef and bacon-scented diffuser, ho-hum. But having your house smell like IKEA? Oh, we're all in on that.

As Sho Matsuzaki, creative director at ad agency Ogilvy, told the New York Post about their latest IKEA campaign, "There's no other furniture brand out there with a food offering that has such a strong following." Matsuzaki went on to say "so for the IKEA Family 10-year anniversary, we thought it would be fitting to create something unexpected that our IKEA Family members and meatball super-fans would love." Well, it's about time, at least according to one Twitter user. Back in 2018, one prescient trend-spotter tweeted: "IKEA should make a Swedish meatball scented candle." Well, that time has finally come! Well, sort of. At this point, it looks like the candles themselves are not yet available in any of IKEA's stores.

As Adweek explains, the meatball-scented Huvudroll candles are part of the Store in a Box package, something that, according to IKEA's website, will allow you to "get the immersive sensory experience of IKEA in a box sent to your door." There are only 1,925 of the Huvudroll candles, and in order to get your hands on one, you'll have to enter IKEA's 10^thAnniversary Family Sweepstakes starting on August 6. And yes, you'll need to join the IKEA Family program first, but you should definitely do this anyway if you haven't already. For one thing, it's free. For another, it will give you access to all kinds of discounts and special event invites.

There will be 900+ winners of the Store in a Box packages, which, doing the math, seems to imply that there will be 2 candles in each box. As to what the rest of the box contents include, IKEA has yet to say, but they're bound to be fun, too. Who knows, if there's enough buzz around the Huvudroll candle, maybe they will decide to start carrying this product in their stores!