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IKEA Releases Zoom Backgrounds Inspired By Its Most Iconic Catalog Covers

Inigo Del Castillo
Inigo Del Castillo
Inigo is a content writer at Apartment Therapy and previously for Lost At E Minor. A few years ago, he wrote an article about baby bats, which was so cute, Buzzfeed took a screenshot of the headline and cover image, then made a listicle about weird but adorable things. He…read more
published Dec 16, 2020
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Credit: IKEA Museum

Now’s your chance to make your home look like the cover of an IKEA catalog.

IKEA recently announced that its much-beloved paper catalog will end its 70-year publication run, citing declining consumer demand and media consumption. To pay tribute to the catalog’s history, the Swedish company has released a set of video call backgrounds for Zoom and Microsoft Teams, inspired by their most iconic catalog covers from the past 33 years.

Related: Apartment Therapy Made Holiday Zoom Backgrounds in Case You Don’t Feel Up to Decorating This Year

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Credit: IKEA
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Some backdrops can feel nostalgic, as they feature the covers from the ‘80s and ‘90s, complete with eye-catching colors and patterns. Other backgrounds, oddly, include pictures of families. My favorite is the one which shows a messy but inviting bedroom bathed in varying shades of blue.

Whichever cover you choose, the IKEA team says it hopes that the backdrops will inspire, just as the print catalog has done for more than seven decades.

You can check out the entire collection here, and see below for our step-by-step guide to installing IKEA’s backgrounds on Zoom and Microsoft Teams:

Zoom

  1. Download your favorite catalog background.
  2. Open Zoom and enter ‘Settings’.
  3. In the section ‘Virtual Background’, click the + icon and select your catalogue background.
  4. Don’t forget to uncheck ‘Mirror my video’ or you’ll view everything the wrong way around.
  5. You’re all set!

Microsoft Teams PC

  1. Download your favorite catalogue background.
  2. In File Explorer, paste the following text: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Teams\Backgrounds\Uploads
  3. Copy the backgrounds you downloaded to the folder that comes up.
  4. You’re all set!

Microsoft Teams Mac

  1. Download your favorite catalogue background.
  2. Locate the ‘Go’ Dropdown menu at the top of your desktop and open ‘Go to folder…’.
  3. Paste in the following text: ~/Library/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/Teams/Backgrounds/Uploads
  4. This will take you to a folder. Copy the backgrounds you downloaded to this folder. You can now select this background during your next video call.
  5. If the image appears to be the wrong way round, that’s ok: the people you are speaking to will view it correctly.
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