Scandinavian Design Furniture ⏐ e-shop

Scandinavian design furniture comes essentially from three Nordic countries.

Firstly, Denmark 🇩🇰, the flagship country of Scandinavian design, where the majority of designers and publishers of Nordic design furniture, past and present, were born.

Then there's Finland 🇫🇮, which has played and continues to play a major creative role in Northern European design.

Finally, Sweden 🇸🇪, the North's main industrial power and home of Ikea, which played a major role in bringing Nordic design back to center stage at the end of the 20th century.

The comeback of Scandinavian design owes much to the Swedish giant Ikea, whose furniture is mostly a copy of authentic Scandinavian design furniture. Thanks to the Swedish giant, many children forged their taste through contact with Nordic aesthetics: simple forms, functional intelligence, the importance of natural materials.

As adults, they naturally turned to more upscale Nordic design, creating an important market for contemporary Scandinavian furniture manufacturers, which has been growing rapidly over the past 20 years.

Among these Scandinavian publishers, we can distinguish two groups.

The first group includes historic publishers such as Carl Hansen & Søn (founded 1908), Fritz Hansen (1872), Artek (1935), String Furniture (1949), Fredericia (1911), FDB Møbler (1942) and others.

The second group includes the new Scandinavian design editors, born of the market revival some twenty years ago, such as Hay (founded in 2002), &Tradition (2010), Muuto (2008), Ferm Living (2006), Normann Copenhagen (1999), and others.

▸ Does Scandinavia Design only sell Scandinavian design furniture?

Nordic design furniture accounts for over 80% of our offering. It's our DNA, and we've never wanted to dilute our expertise and focus by diversifying too much into Italian, German, French or Spanish design.

Nevertheless, a number of non-Nordic brands have been added to our catalog over the years.

Vitra for a start. The Swiss company is the world's largest design brand in terms of prestige and economic power. Its unrivalled catalog includes many iconic pieces of Scandinavian design, such as the famous chair by Danish designer Verner Panton or the seats by Finnish designer Eero Saarinen.

Other lesser-known brands are occasionally added when we feel they complement the Nordic brands.

▸ What is design furniture?

Technological innovations are always at the origin of design. By opening up new technical possibilities, these innovations enable the invention of new forms. Design is therefore first and foremost the work of the engineer.

These new forms give rise to new aesthetics, which the most talented designers gradually perfect to make them as pleasing to the eye as possible. In this way, design flourishes through artistic work.

But designer furniture is first and foremost a commercial object: if it doesn't satisfy a function efficiently and at an appropriate price, it won't sell and won't exist.

Design furniture is therefore the fruit of the happy combination of technology, art and functionality. Or, to put it another way, between the engineer, the artist and the entrepreneur.

▸ What defines Scandinavian design furniture?

If design is always born of technical innovation, it's only logical that Scandinavian design should be born of Scandinavian technical innovation.

These innovations mainly concern wood, the most abundant and economical raw material in the Nordic countries.

It is therefore logical that Scandinavian design was born in the great cabinet-making workshops, such as Carl Hansen or Fritz Hansen, and that the first great masters of Scandinavian design were woodworking specialists, such as Hans J. Wegner, Borge Møgensen or Finn Juhl, who were great manual workers before being great artists.

An essential technological milestone in woodworking was reached by Alvar Aalto, who was the first to successfully bend wood with the aid of machines: this was the invention of his famous L-shaped leg, which gave rise to the first self-assembly flat-pack furniture kits, inexpensive to manufacture, store and ship.

Alvar Aalto also made a major contribution to the invention of veneering, which lowers production costs by reserving noble materials for the visible surface of furniture and enhancing the less noble parts of the wood within the structure.

The other materials that characterize Scandinavian design are also all abundant in the Nordic countries: leather, fabric and papercord, a type of extremely resistant paper rope.

Today, Scandinavian design benefits from the cutting-edge technologies of Nordic industry, which is among the most innovative in the world. Environmental protection, in particular, is a major source of innovation, and therefore of renewal in Nordic design, since the major countries of the North were the first in the world to integrate environmental protection into their production methods.

▸ Does Scandinavia Design sell originals or copies?

Scandinavia Design has always been a staunch opponent of copies, for two main reasons.

The first is that copies of designer furniture are almost always poor value for money: they're “fast design”, like “fast fashion” - products that aren't made to last, but to be changed often. It's perfect for young people who move frequently and can't afford to keep their furniture for long.

The second reason is more intellectual. We love the work of the mind. We admire the ability to create. We know that it takes great personalities to design great furniture, that mediocre effort produces mediocre products. We know that creation is a risk, a requirement, the fruit of hard work, a strength of character, but rarely a means of making easy money. So we like the idea of rewarding this requirement.

▸ What is a design icon?

The term “design icon” is a hackneyed expression, used by unscrupulous marketers for every purpose.

Any wretched product developed in a hurry by undemanding minds is now labelled a “design icon”.

It doesn't mean a thing.

And yet it does.

Those who like to know the meaning of words are well aware that the term design icon has a precise meaning, referring not to negligence but to exacting standards, not to the banal but to the exceptional, not to ephemeral marketing but to the history of art.

As we explained earlier, design is the fruit of a happy alliance between technology, art and function. Between the engineer, the artist and the entrepreneur.

Each of these pillars has its successes and failures, its great figures and its anonymous ones. Sometimes, the celebrated figures go out of fashion. Sometimes, the anonymous reveal themselves. Some move from one category to another as time or circumstances dictate.

A design icon is born when the three stars align: the work of the engineer, the artist and the entrepreneur reach their point of excellence at the same time.

For example: the Panton chair, which was the first chair molded in a single block, thanks to the collaboration between a great designer, the Dane Verner Panton, a great entrepreneur, the founder of Vitra Willi Fehlbaum, and talented engineers.

A design icon is a product so accomplished, so coherent, that it marks its era. Because it is innovative, it is inevitably original and easily recognizable. Because its success is not simply the result of fashion, it remains relevant through the ages.

▸ Why does Scandinavian style feel so good?

We mentioned the first part of the answer above: for both geographical and industrial reasons, Scandinavian design favors natural materials such as wood, fabric and leather.

These natural materials are warmer and more pleasant than synthetic materials such as plastic, or the metal so widely used in German design, for example.

The second part of the answer lies in the climate: the Nordic winter is long, cold and austere. Northerners therefore spend much more time indoors than southerners. It's only logical, then, that they put more emphasis, more care, more attention, more know-how, more resources and more work into them.

We're all familiar with the famous Danish concept of hygge - a term that designates the joyful well-being, the warm, intimate comfort that you feel in a well-furnished home: for Scandinavians, happiness is always rooted in the simplicity of everyday life.

▸ Conclusion: I buy my furniture from Scandinavia Design

Over the past twenty years, Scandinavian design furniture has once again dominated the world of design. This trend is based on solid, lasting pillars: a profound evolution in demand, the know-how of a few great entrepreneurs, and the quality of designers past and present.

Scandinavia Design was born in 2007 and has grown with the times. Over the years, we have become one of Europe's leading design specialists.

We don't believe that our generalist competitors will provide you with better service, better advice or even better prices. If you do, don't hesitate to challenge us: we're always up for a challenge to improve.

If you get the chance, come and visit us in our two showrooms.

We hope you enjoy exploring our site.