My top picks from Stockholm Furniture Fair 2020 – part 1

This year marked the 70th anniversary of Stockholm Furniture & Light Fair – for five days each February, it’s the biggest meeting place for Scandinavian design. The first edition in 1951 showed only Swedish manufacturers, but today’s festival, taking place on the same week as Stockholm Design Week, brings together around 700 design companies and independent designers from countries across the world. It’s still Scandi design heaven, with 80% of exhibitors hailing from the Nordic countries.

Stockholm Furniture Fair is where the Scandinavian design brands showcase their new launches and collections for the year ahead. This year, considered minimalism reigned supreme, but the colour palette had moved on from white walls to a rich, 1970s-inspired palette of chocolate browns, warm ochres, red wine tones and one hell of a lot of beige.

Here I’ve rounded up my favourite new products and furniture launches from the fair, from relaunches of design classics to outdoor chairs made of recycled plastic bottles – stay tuned for part 2 later in the week. And if you want to tour the fair with me and get a behind the scenes view, check out my IGTV video, breaking down some of the design trends seen at the show.

&Tradition unveils a new home accessories line designed by Space Copenhagen
Danish design company &Tradition unveiled a new series of home accessories and textiles to complement its collection of contemporary furniture and lighting. Designed by Space Copenhagen, &Tradition Collect comprises a range of elegantly understated cushions, throws and planters in earthy tones. From boucle cushions and organic cotton throws to concrete planters and linen bedspreads, the pieces are designed to bring an element of quiet luxury to a home. Choose from muted sand and slate colour ways or add a rich accent with dark burgundy. Available to buy from early 2020.

Images courtesy &Tradition

Carl Hansen & Søn reissues two Børge Mogensen designs
Danish brand Carl Hansen & Søn has relaunched two designs by the modernist furniture designer Børge Mogensen that were first shown together at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Furniture Exhibition in 1958. The BM0865 day bed is a versatile, multi-functional design – Mogensen designed various modules, cylindrical headrests, armrests and back cushions that could be combined together to create a sofa, lounge set or whole landscape of furniture. The idea ties into Mogensen’s concept of ‘building furniture’, where pieces can be added to or adapted, depending on changing needs or living arrangements. Available from May 2020.

The BM0488 table bench was designed to complement the day bed, but is beautiful as a standalone piece too. It’s crafted in solid oak with a double woven surface. The simple, timeless design could be used as a coffee table, as a surface to display books and magazines at the end of a bed or in a hallway. Available from September 2020.

Images courtesy Carl Hansen & Søn

New w203 illumina by Ilse Crawford for Wästberg
Inspired by classic library lamps that cast their intimate glow in reading rooms, Ilse Crawford’s new lamp for Swedish lighting brand Wästberg immediately caught my eye. It comes in a timeless soft eggshell white, a brushed aluminium and a show-stopping, high-gloss copper. The disc-shaped shade with its perforated lines diffuses light evenly and reduces glare, while a subtle switch allows the user to dim and control the light source.

Images courtesy Wästberg

New Design Of Carry trolley by Design Of and Carine Seth Andersson
Swedish design company Design Of presented a new design for a minimalist bar trolley at Stockholm Furniture Fair this year. Designed in collaboration with designer Carine Seth Andersson, the Design Of Carry is a versatile design that can be used both indoors and outside. With three tiers, including a perforated shelf, the trolley can be used for myriad things, whether it’s drinks bottles, displaying books and objects or storing gardening equipment. It comes in classic black or an on-trend brown. Priced at 649 euros.

Images courtesy of Design Of

New Lavitta bar stool by Poiat
Finnish company Poiat has added a new bar stool to its Lavitta collection and unveiled the first prototype at Stockholm Furniture Fair. The sculptural, streamlined design has the same identity as the armchair and bench already in the range, first launched in 2014. Available in light oak, black and dark oak, the seat and forked legs that make up the curved form of the stool are made from one piece of veneered, moulded plywood. It’s also available as an upholstered version.

Image courtesy Poiat

Warm Nordic launches a design classic by Hans Olsen 
Warm Nordic, a new Danish design brand launched in 2018, has relaunched a mid-century style collection created by architect Hans Olsen. First designed in 1956, the Dwell collection comprises a lounge chair and a compact sofa with curved armrests and tapered wooden legs. The organic-shaped designs were originally produced by the Dutch furniture manufacturer De Ster Gelderland. Warm Nordic has updated the range with a two-tone version with a contrasting seat and body, as well as a classic boucle. Available in Spring 2020.

Images courtesy Warm Nordic

Fredericia relaunches hidden gems from the archive
Danish brand Fredericia has brought three classic designs back into its collection. First up – the BM61 Chair and BM62 Armchair by Fredericia’s first design director, Børge Mogensen, is a simple, lightweight design made of solid wood. Seemingly tying into the rattan trend of the moment, yet very much ahead of its time, the chair comes with a choice between a cane wicker or linen webbed seat and back. Available from September 2020.

Mogensen’s Canvas Chair has a similarly relaxed, rustic look that feels contemporary and new, decades after it was conceived. It was designed just before his death in 1972. With a form familiar to his famous Spanish chair, the design features a solid wood frame with a seat and suspended back in canvas. Available from April 2020.

The Ditzel Lounge Chair, meanwhile, was a collaboration between Nanna Ditzel and her husband Jørgen. Designed in 1949, its unconventional shape with its broadly curved back was conceived to give people the freedom to sit in new, more relaxed ways. Today the chair is made of high pressured PUR-foam, enforced with a steel frame and upholstered in fabric with solid wooden legs. Available from May 2020.

Images courtesy Fredericia

Ferm Living
One of my favourite pieces from Ferm Living’s Spring/Summer 2020 collection is their new outdoor Desert chair, because it’s a simple, everyday design I can see in my own home, or garden. A modernist-inspired design, it’s made from a tubular powder-coated steel frame with an interchangeable woven seat. The fabric seat is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles and comes in four designs: soil, stripes, shapes or solid cashmere (the colour not the fabric, that wouldn’t be very practical outside!).

Ferm Living have taken the concept one step further and designed a series of hardwearing outdoor cushions and rugs in the same recycled plastic fabric. They say: ‘Not only is it practical, easily cleaned, and suitable for outdoor use, it also feels just as lovely as any other rug that comes your way. Turning plastic bottles into PET-yarn, from which you can weave, has five steps: collecting bottles, crushing bottles and compressing them into compact entities, converting the compressed bottles into small chips, processing chips in carding machines, and finally you have a material you can spin into yarns.’

Images courtesy Ferm Living