Yahoo Lifestyle Stockholm Comes Alive With Boundary-pushing Designs as Brands Focus on High-end
STOCKHOLM — “We want to be the best furniture fair in the world — not the biggest,” said Stockholm Furniture Fair director Daniel Heckscher at the inauguration of Scandinavia’s biggest design trade show and design week.
During Stockholm Design Week, which ran from Feb. 3 to 8 and showcased the work of 250 exhibitors at the Stockholmsmässan exhibition center and hosted more than 100 events scattered around the Swedish capital, the city was transformed into a hub of high-end design.
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One such brand was Verk. Founded in 2021 by Jacop Merlini and Simon Anund, the furniture firm prides itself on its Swedish manufacturing and exclusive use of Swedish raw materials. “Solid Swedish wood, no colors, no veneers and local production. And there is another thing that makes production in Sweden sustainable: we have access to fossil-free electricity,” said Merlini.
The Verk sofa V.VP.02 fashioned in solid oak with ecologically tanned leather has a price tag of around 10,000 euros. But despite the substantial price tag, Merlini claims to “hate the word high-end. You must remember that we will give you a 15-year warranty. A chair or a sofa from us will likely outlive you. And after 15 years one of the major auction houses estimates that our products will still have 30 percent of the value. If you consider all that we might even be cheaper than Ikea,” Merlini said, adding that he expects last year’s production of 2,000 pieces to double in 2025.
The lion’s share of the 250 exhibitors were Swedish furniture producers — among them Edsbyn, which presented Eline, a lender swivel leather chair priced at 1,110 euros, which was designed by 30-year-old architecture and design office Claesson Koivisto Rune. “Design something that should keep for 100 years — that’s sustainability,” said cofounder Eero Koivisto.
Edsbyn also presented new versions of the 70-year-old featherlight wooden peg chair Fanett 55T for which prices start at around 600 euros for exclusive editions. Interestingly, the chair is being produced on Swedish soil again after a 55-year hiatus when it was made abroad.
Sweden’s Furniture and Interiors Industry at a Glance
Merlini’s optimistic prediction stands out in a furniture and interior industry that saw its revenues slide 5 percent overall in 2024 compared with 2023, in line with other design producing countries.
“Within creative industries, furniture is one of the most important sectors right now,” said Benjamin Dousa, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade. The Swedish industry has some 30,000 employees and a turnover of 2.6 billion euros, 80 percent of which is from export, with the most important markets being the European Union, Norway and the U.S. Annual figures were compiled by TMF, Sweden’s confederation for the furniture and woodworks industry.
By comparison Italy’s wood furnishing sector posted a 3.1 percent drop in revenues in 2024 to 51.6 billion euros versus 53.2 billion in 2023, according to preliminary data released by FederlegnoArredo, the Italian federation of woodworking and furniture industries.
“The 5 percent drop in the Swedish furniture industry is quite good, given that building houses went down around 25 percent,” said Cecilia Ask Engström, head of industry development at furniture organization TMF. “On an international level, the Swedish furniture industry is a pioneer when it comes to circularity, which is an advantage for Swedish producers,” she claimed after an industry talk, a new fair stage coorganized by TMF.
Traceability, Manufacturing
One of the talks was about blockchain-based digital product passports, which will be a mandatory EU reality by 2030. “There are still a lot of solutions to be made around DPPs [digital product passports], including questions about integrity,” said Johan Lindau, founder of Blå Station, whose bestselling sofa called BOB was seen at the most recent World Economic Forum in Davos.
This year’s products from Blå Station, including the Vilhelm armchair, priced at around 2,100 euros for the leather version, were bound by a common theme: solid materials that can be separated easily for future renovation or reuse. “We are a design company, not a furniture producer. Our task is change, improvement, smarter solutions, smaller carbon footprint. Not to fill production machines. We would rather make a product we love and doesn’t sell than a product everybody loves but we can’t stand behind it,” Lindau added.
“The Swedes do pioneer on circularity and sustainability, and they always did. They have the technical and manufacturing capabilities, it is the best place to do it,” said U.K.-based designer Faye Toogood, Stockholm Furniture Fair’s guest of honor this year.
Sweden has its own high level of automation and technical manufacturing which, according to several brands like TMF, keeps production costs low and comparable with countries like Poland, which boasts skilled manufacturing and more workers.
Invited for her cross-boundary approach that spans across design, fashion and art, Toogood’s installation Manufracture, placed in the entrance hall, focused on the process toward the final object, including her famous Roly Poly chair fashioned with a bowled seat and sturdy, stumpy legs.
“Manufracture is about making people aware about the challenges of manufacture and sustainability. It is a sketchbook normally not revealed,” Toogood said.
Whether for her own brands of furniture or clothing, or in collaborations with brands like Poltrona Frau, Tacchini, Cc-tapis, Vaarnii and Hem, Toogood’s reoccurring focus could be summed up in two words: human craftsmanship. “We always focus on what is human. This is what we need to do as designers, and this is how you produce luxury objects; by using handcraft.”
Claesson Koivisto Rune had a busy week with new golden brass candleholders for Skultuna; circular, triangular, and square-shaped wine glasses for Orrefors; a couple of new lamps; a secret party inaugurating the office’s new Södermalm studio; a panel talk on watch design, and the embodiment of longevity through curating the high-end vintage exhibition Aiiro in collaboration at the Jackson Gallery.
Located in the wealthy Östermalm part of Stockholm, the exhibition had the theme of unknown objects by famous designers. For instance, it featured Hans Wegner’s crocodile cabinet from the mid-to-late 1940s, with a price tag of 240,000 euros. “Only a handful were ever made,” said Adam, a former Sotheby’s employee who works at the gallery.
“This is really a holy grail,” he continued of one of two known Rare Type P chairs priced at 85,000 euros. Designed by Gerald Summers, the chair’s curvature was achieved from a single sheet of plywood, cut and steam-pressed.
High prices are also found in new furniture, for instance the 50,000 euro Stockholm cabinet found at the boutique of storied Swedish design firm Svenskt Tenn. “This exclusive market has grown,” said architect Caline Heiroth, who designs interiors for hotel chains and offices. “Hospitality had a really strong autumn in 2024, and normally this happens before a struggling building industry turns. And, since the furniture industry is dependent on the building industry, I predict a positive turn during 2025,” she said of the furniture industry.
When looking at trends, Heiroth spoke of warmth and coziness. “Today, offices should be more like hospitality lounges, or even like homes,” she said.
One of the season’s most anticipated openings unfurled at furniture boutique Nordiska Galleriet (NO GA), situated around the corner from the Jackson Gallery. Inside, the jury of the annual Dezeen awards presented furniture designed exclusively for boutiques, including the Källemo Grace armchairs designed by famed Swedish interior architect and designer Mats Theselius and the silvery Cassina Maralunga 40 by Italian designer Vico Magistretti.
NO GA’s chief business officer Hanna Nova Beatrice is also editor in chief of The New Era, and curated the Älvsjö Gård installation at the furniture fair, with furniture and objects made by 14 designers, artists and makers; a mix of one-offs and refined series. Among them was a series of furniture by Jenny Nordberg, made from discarded office equipment and furniture. “This exhibition mirrors how industry looks today. A lot of designers and galleries move between industry and craft,” said Nova Beatrice.
The strategy for growth sounded similar among exhibitors, and Jacop Merlini of Verk was as clear as the brand’s designs: “It is all about information — about the product itself and how it complies with the increasing sustainability and transparency demands in the EU. The executives must know, the property owners must know, clients must know — and of course the architects. The architects are early adopters that care about sustainability, but they have a lot to learn.”
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