As snow swirled through Manhattan this month, the British designer Tom Dixon found himself in a cozy spot above it all, standing atop a twin-size bed with a dozen nervous students at the Parsons School of Design in Greenwich Village.
Dressed in a charcoal suit, Mr. Dixon was trying to make a radical point: that Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant known for beds and dressers that are so inexpensive they are often perceived as being disposable, could manufacture a collection of affordable, heirloom-quality pieces to last a lifetime.