Iconic Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture retailer, IKEA, is breaking ground on a new planning studio located in the heart of Manhattan’s Upper East Side at 999 Third Avenue.

This cutting-edge concept will allow customers to experience a range of small-space and smart design solutions catered to an NYC audience. While at the planning studio, visitors can customize their own spaces and directly purchase IKEA items. To ensure a seamless experience, IKEA will ship any purchases directly to the customer, meaning they won’t have to worry about carrying around those large blue bags or hauling large boxes on the subway.

IKEA’s transition to a planning studio retail model is just one example of the ways the brand is catering to their urban consumers, and offering a more personalized, experience-based retail environment for the next generation of home goods shoppers.

“It is significantly smaller than our beloved blue box stores but will represent a new way for customers to experience and interact with the IKEA brand for urban home design. The IKEA Planning Studio will complement the already strong presence of IKEA stores in the New York market with our stores in Brooklyn, Elizabeth, Long Island and Paramus,” notes IKEA.

The grand opening is slated for the spring of 2019. Stay tuned for more details.