Hail to the furniture at store display

IKEA store employees Fredrik Rabe, left, and Adam Young, dressed as the company’s moose mascot, get ready to take their places outside the Woodbridge store on Saturday. In a store promotion, an Oval Office room was created with IKEA furnishings and taken on tour locally. {Jeff Mankie/News & Messenger}

By: Amanda Stewart | Inside NoVA
Published: January 18, 2009

Area residents got the chance to peek inside a version of the Oval Office on Saturday, but it wasn't the one at the White House.

A mobile version of the president's office, as envisioned by IKEA, was parked in front of the Woodbridge store on Saturday afternoon.

The display, billed as a "modern replica of the Oval Office," was made with IKEA furniture.

Shoppers at the Woodbridge IKEA got a chance to check out the glass-enclosed display parked outside the building on a tractor- trailer.

A similar replica was on display at Union Station in Washington this week, said Wendy Rogers, the marketing and public relations manager for IKEA Woodbridge.

"This is a replica of what they had at Union Station. It's a fun way for local residents to get to experience that," Rogers said.

A few shoppers paused as they drove past the display Saturday. Some wanted to share the image or keep it for posterity, and they snapped pictures with their cell phone cameras.

At Union Station, visitors could sit inside the Oval Office display. Because the mobile version was inside a truck, visitors to the Woodbridge store could just look inside.

The mobile Oval Office has been traveling throughout the area, Rogers said.

Today the truck will be driving in the area of Potomac Mills mall all day, so shoppers can still catch a glimpse of it.

IKEA created the display as a part of their "Embrace Change '09" campaign, a marketing tool tied into the upcoming presidential inauguration.

Last weekend a mock-presidential motorcade, including a limousine packed with IKEA furniture, was parked in front of the store, Rogers said.

The campaign also includes a Web site, www.embracechange09.com, where visitors can create their own version of the Oval Office using pictures of IKEA furniture, and submit their designs to a drawing for a $1,500 IKEA gift card.

Rogers said IKEA has offered to furnish any room at the White House using IKEA furniture free of charge.

"We haven't heard from them yet," Rogers said.

Staff writer Amanda Stewart can be reached at 703-878-8014.

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