Retail catalogues for interiors

A rise in interest of home furnishings for 19th-century middle-class Britain and US meant there was a higher demand for furniture in department stores and furniture shops. Capitalizing on the power of the wealthy class to whom they appealed, retailers took advantage of cheaply available printing methods and began selling retail catalogues. These pamphlets presented information of furniture and interiors available to all consumers and in particular, Sears, who offered to deliver any item countrywide. Terrance Conran's Habitat, founded in 1964, came about to service a growing number of affluent consumers, intent on purchasing a cost-efficient interior presented in ready-to-made rooms. The first Habitat catalogue in 1966 was marketed as a guide to decorating a home and not just a telling tool. Swedish company IKEA created the same room-set device to document its tens of thousands of products and in the process dominated the global market in the late 20th century. Founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, the catalogue was first produced in 1951 and by 2002 had a distribution figure of 110 million across 34 languages.