Original leisure furniture from Scandinavia

THERE ARE MOMENTS THAT DETERMINE HOW YOU LIVE THE REST OF YOUR LIFE THIS IS ONE OF THEM

WE MAKE FURNITURE FOR THE TIME WHEN ALL OBLIGATIONS HAVE BEEN TAKEN CARE OF Time is short and therefore precious. It’s a question of supply and demand. The most valuable time of all is the time you carve out for yourself, when you can treat yourself to being entirely unproductive and settle down with a book or see friends. Since our furniture is created for these moments, so it can remain free from today’s demands of efficiency, productivity or utility.   You might think that its purpose is unimportant or superficial, but nothing could be further from the truth. It’s these stress-free moments...

NO EFFICIENCY IN SIGHT The frame of one chair in our Häringe series is made from stainless steel, to which we attach slats of oak. Each screw is inserted by hand, and this alone takes time. The choice of oak is both logical and natural. Here in Scandinavia, we’ve built ships from oak for hundreds of years. Oak did the work of steel before steel existed; it was watertight and resistant to rot. Back then, oak took ships safely through the salty storms of the Atlantic. Now it ensures that our furniture survives rainy Swedish summers.   But before we get as far as inserting the screws, the frame...

FROM THE INSIDE Our Falsterbo and Häringe series is designed by the duo of Joacim Wahlström and Carl Jägnefält. We already knew that they were extremely talented when they joined us. They were also understanding and tolerant with us when we disagreed and had comments to make during the process. Looking back, we appreciate their patience for our occasionally rather extreme demands.   Egil Jansson, who designed our Vidinge hanging chair, arrived one day with a scale model of a beautiful and intricate design that he wanted to show us. We were fascinated by it, saw that it would work in full scale,...

Someone is outside, someone else is inside. They breathe the same air and sit in the same chair. One of life’s wonderful curiosities.

A SUMMER THAT CAN ONLY HAPPEN HERE We are Scandinavian, and this affects both us and the furniture we make. We want to be outdoors, but our summers are fleeting. June, July and August need to infuse us with sufficient energy so that we can cope with the other nine months of the year. Unfortunately, usually at least one of these three months fails in its task. Often two. Sometimes almost three.   During these three brief months, we concentrate more. There is more daylight in June, more dew in July and more moonlight in August. Plants work in shifts to keep up. Rose Bay Willow Herb relieve Lupins...

So what’s this summer all about? If you are not the slightest bit poetic, you can take the meteorologist’s line and say that it’s summer ”when the daily average temperature stabilises above 10 degrees.”   Well, okay.   If you are less scientifically minded, you have considerably more options. Early summer, for example, can be used to describe any day when you have had enough of the self-important spring, which lingers after winter, and grates with its budding and dripping. One year it’s at the end of April, the next year it’s sometime after May.   Midsummer is at the summer solstice, when large...

WHEN SUN AND MOON SHARE THE SKY The year’s brightest night is no night at all. Across large areas of Scandinavia it is bright around the clock. It is not surprising that so many myths surround midsummer: pagan rituals about sex, life and death. Slaves sacrificed for the harvest, seed cast over the earth. Slaughter and desire.   The midsummer pole, thrust into the bosom of Mother Earth. Animals and flowers that could speak that night. Young girls placing seven sorts of flowers under their pillows, dreaming of their future lover. You reap what you sow. As you pollinate the wild and placate her,...

THE ARCHIPELAGO: WHERE SPARE TIME IS SPENT BEST People have always sought out the seaside as a place to relax. Some time around 1870 it became popular to build holiday homes in the Stockholm archipelago. No wonder, since the city stank, like only a city can stink when clean water is scarce, and while dung, rubbish and untreated sewage ferment in the sun. Wealthy factory owners and traders built huge wooden properties, with promenades, cocktail verandas and space for both entertainment and servants. And they swam. Just for fun. The rugged fishermen shook their windswept heads at their whimsical...

WE ARE THE LEGACY OF A TRADITION THAT FEELS ENTIRELY MODERN Prior to the Industrial Revolution, every product had a story to it. Every object that was made was the result of an idea combined with a great deal of time.   Problem-solving and ingenuity, artistry and purpose. It’s how cases and bridal chests were made. It’s how baskets and wool gloves were produced. Not to mention furniture, wooden horses, dresses, whisks, boots, axes, fences and ropes.   Everything.   No, there’s no romantic glow over this. People have had it hellishly hard over the years. Hunger and hard labour. They would happily...

Häringe Häringe Castle nestles by Landfjärden Bay. It had stood there for 272 years when Torsten Kreuger purchased it in 1929. Torsten was a man with little understanding of historically listed buildings and a keen interest for new fashions.   He quickly installed a fridge in the kitchen, a skittle alley in one of the wings and Sweden’s first outdoor swimming pool in the castle gardens.   Over time, the castle became a jet-set haunt where one could see both Josephine Baker and Greta Garbo. Decadent? Perhaps a bit. Fashionable? To some extent.   If you were to design a piece of furniture according...

Jean-Paul Sartre argued that anxiety is not just a veil separating us from an event; on the contrary, anxiety is an integral part of an event. Perhaps he should have tried eating breakfast on a jetty from time to time.