Category: Design and Interiors

Skandium are stocking Carl Malmsten's Samsas easy chair and sofa. The design looks fresh and elegant today but actually originated in the 1920s when Malmsten was working on furniture for the then newly constructed Stockholm Concert Hall. 

His design style was routed in his Swedish background and traditions – he worked a lot with the blond woods that are now so closely associated with Scandinavian style – and he wanted his furniture to inspire a warmth feeling. This certainly is reflected in this pleasing curving design. One of Malmsten's main achievements was to found two schools of design and also to establish co-operative furniture making workshops. It's these that continue to produce the furniture manufactured under his name today. 

As you may imagine, there is a price to pay for this quality of work: the easy chair starts at £1562 and the sofas from £2822.

Buy them at Skandium

Kundalini's contemporary designs with a retro look have been highlighted by us before and this E.T.A. light, designed by Guglielmo Berchicci, has a distinctive shape that could fit into several different looks. In its white colouring it looks like something from a space age fantasy, in the orange shade pictured it looks like a bubbling lava lamp.

Though the shape looks quite organic and fluid, it's carefully constructed from fibreglass over a metallic inner construction. This craftsmanship is reflected in the price, which is a cool £547.50 and, as well as the colours mentioned, it also comes in red and silver. 

A nice mid-century addition to any hallway, the Bill hanger by Louise Hederström is ideal for keeping your coats (and hats) tidy.

It's actually a modern design in a 1950s style, offering a lacquered metal frame in white with eight wooden knobs for plenty of storage in a fairly small space.

Available online, you can pick it up for 77 Euros.

Find out more at the Scandinavian Design Center website

A modern design, but there's a distinct 1950s feel to these Atto pendant lights by Seppo Koho.

That shape is created by the use of laminated birch, curved and coloured with either a natural, black or white finish, sized around 340mm wide and 210mm high.

Manufactured by Secto Design, you can pick one up for 610 Euros.

Find out more at the Finnish Design Shop website

Earlier this year we featured Snowden Flood's t-shirt designs which represented well known chairs through their silhouettes. These printed linen cushions pick up on the same idea, this time showing the chairs against arty, minimalist backgrounds.