Scandinavian furniture design and decoration

Scandinavia covers Sweden, Norway and Denmark geographically but in design Finland is also part of it.

Scandinavian furniture design and decorating are renowned all over the world for their contemporary, innovative and streamlined qualities. Characteristic to Scandinavian design is focusing on function or utility of the products. Also continued commitment to modernist ideals and the use of modern technology as well as using materials like teak wood and metal are characteristic to Scandinavian design. In Scandinavian pottery and glassware design naturalistic forms are main themes and in fabrics Scandinavian design mainly uses clear, easy and simple patterns.

Scandinavian Furniture Design

The most dominant theme in Scandinavian furniture design is neoclassicism in its most advanced, exact and modern stage.

The Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 and also the World’s Fair in New York in 1939 introduced the world to the Scandinavian design style furniture and its characteristics. Scandinavian design is simple, clean, light-weight and it can be seen best in Danish and Swedish furniture. The main points of Scandinavian design are quality craftsmanship combined with mass production where it’s needed and suitable. Bent plywood is as frequently used material as metal in Scandinavian design.

In 1949 Chair by Hans Wegner set a good example; its subtly turned legs and lightly sloping backrest was made from teak and oak and it was combined with a woven seat as an attempt to create simple and sensual mass-production design. The Verner Panton Stacking Chair in 1960s was the first single-molded chair made of fibreglass which has sensitive references to the curves of the Art Nouveau period while mimicking the rhythm of Rietveld’s extremely geometric ZigZag Chair.

Over the years design became less “crafty”-looking and the designers from Denmark, Sweden and Finland managed harder-edged geometric trends with a flavour of modern Scandinavian design. They weren’t afraid of new plastics and adopted the designs and manufacturing possibilities unreservedly.

Some of the Scandinavian furniture remains popular today in stores including Scandinavian beds (often platform beds), bedroom furniture, office furniture and especially office chairs, leather armchairs, contemporary coffee tables and Scandinavian teak furniture.