‘We’re not a toilet brush!’: Sweden reclaims town names from Ikea

‘We would like to show the world that Bolmen is so much more than an item with which you clean your toilet’ says regional official

Bolmen: not a toilet brush, but a tranquil southern lake (Visit Sweden)

Sweden is trying to “reclaim” the names of some of its most beautiful locations, many of which have become better known as popular side tables, shelving units and even a toilet brush from the homewares giant Ikea.

In a tongue-in-cheek marketing campaign, Visit Sweden alerts Scandinavia fans to the picturesque scenery in Bolmen, a tranquil lake in the southern Småland region of the country - with a name that’s more famous as a black plastic toilet brush retailing for 75p.

Other items in the “Discover the Originals” line up include Järvfjället - known among Ikea shoppers worldwide as a gaming chair, but revealed to be a 786m mountain in the northwest of the country; Kallax, which is both a coastal village near Luleå in Swedish Lapland and a storage shelf; and Ingatorp, an extendable table twinned with the village where you´ll find one of Sweden’s oldest wooden buildings.

The town of Skärhamn with its namesake door handles (Visit Sweden)

Of Bolmen, Magnus Gunnarsson, the chair of Smålands Sjörike, said: “We do appreciate that IKEA has named a product for our beautiful lake and that Visit Sweden is bringing global attention to this. But now we would like to show the world that Bolmen is so much more than an item with which you clean your toilet.

“It is an incredibly beautiful place, much loved by us locals. We would like to invite the whole world to spend time in our wonderful, unspoiled natural environment, showing the same care we do and enjoying the crystal-clear water.”

Founded in 1943, Ikea is one of Sweden’s biggest exports.

Founder Ingvar Kamprad named each product after a specific Swedish word, from place names to flowers and plants.

There’s a grouping system, too: outdoor furniture is named after Scandinavian islands, while fabrics and curtains are given Swedish women’s names.

“We are proud of IKEA and in a way, you can say that they helped us make Swedish places world-famous through the names they borrowed for their products,” says Nils Persson of Visit Sweden.

“Now we want, with warmth and a twinkle in our eye, to show the originals behind the product names and invite the world to discover the whole of Sweden.”