Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Nanna Ditzel’s Trinidad chair for Fredericia + a video with Elle Decoration Denmark!! [AD]

This is a paid partnership written in collaboration with Fredericia

I’ve got something VERY exciting to share with you today! To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nanna Ditzel’s iconic Trinidad chair, I’ve teamed up with Danish design company Fredericia to create a video for ELLE Decoration Denmark. Back in December, just before Christmas, I welcomed the magazine’s team – over for the day from Copenhagen – into my London home to talk about what Scandinavian design means to me and how it has helped shape the space I live in.

In the video, I discuss how my home has evolved from a garishly painted set of dark, separate rooms, lacking in personality, to an open-plan, light-filled sanctuary, I profess my love for the colour grey (I go on about that quite a lot, no surprises there!) and share the ways in which I take inspiration from the urban landscape and bring it inside. Francis, my miniature dachshund, makes a star appearance too!

It was an absolute joy to shoot, and with Nanna Ditzel herself having lived in Hampstead for almost 20 years in the Sixties and Seventies, the connection between Danish design and the British capital clicked together perfectly.

First launched in 1993, Ditzel’s Trinidad chair is, for me, a dynamic design, with fluidity and movement forming its arched, fan-like back and delicate cut-out fretwork. The slats give a sense of lightness, while the soft curves embrace the sitting body and support the back.

‘It is very important to take into account the way a chair’s appearance combines with the person who sits in it. Some chairs look like crutches. And I don’t like them at all,’ Nanna Ditzel

Nanna Ditzel was a leading figure in the renewal of Danish design in the 1990s, working with Fredericia to create functional, purposeful furniture with character, well past her 70th birthday. What I find inspirational is the way she made her mark in the male-dominated design world of the 20th century, experimenting with plywood, fibreglass, wickerwork and foam rubber, and turning her hand to everything from cabinet making and tableware to jewellery and textiles. With the Trinidad chair, she pioneered the use of CNC technology to create a stackable plywood chair with a bold silhouette and unique, decorative shape.

While on holiday in Trinidad, Ditzel was inspired by the ornate detailing of grand wooden homes built in the 1920s – so-called Gingerbread Houses – with their airy verandas and wooden shutters, translating what she saw into an instantly recognisable shape that could endure the test of time.

‘On Trinidad, I fell in love with the elaborate fretwork of the colonial facades, which almost dissolve in light and shadow – and this lace-like lightness I wanted to interpret into a chair,’ Nanna Ditzel

Today the Trinidad chair is still carefully crafted in Denmark. To mark the anniversary this year, Fredericia has released the iconic design in three new (grey!) tones – smoked, grey and light grey oak. They’re also available in upholstered versions, as well as in black, and white ash, and lacquered oak, beech, and walnut.

The stain gives a contemporary finish, while celebrating the natural grain of the veneered wood, adding an element of warmth to a simple, pared-back home like my own.

The new shades are available now, priced at £509, to UK customers from the Aram Store as well as other local stockists. Find out more about the Trinidad chair on Fredericia’s website here and head over to ELLE Decoration Denmark to watch the full video. 

All images Cate St Hill