Ikea started in 1943 as a flat-pack furniture upstart from Älmhult, Sweden, and that scrappy, practical streak shapes its smart home story: take everyday needs, strip out friction, and ship at scale. In the Matter era, Ikea acts as a major ecosystem mover, offering a broad lineup of native Matter devices across lighting, sensors, smart plugs, and remotes that make the standard feel like everyday homeware rather than a niche hobby. At the center sits the DIRIGERA hub, a full Matter controller that also bridges older Zigbee gear and serves as a Thread Border Router, so new Kajplats bulbs with dual radios (Matter-over-Thread and Zigbee), unified-design sensors, and energy-tracking plugs can live alongside legacy TRÅDFRI pieces and still work with Apple Home, Google Home, and similar platforms.