This year marked the fifth time I’ve attended the Stockholm Furniture Fair, so at this point I consider myself something of an armchair expert in the machinations of this small but mighty fair. All over town this year, there were conversations about the future of SFF, which has contracted in recent years due to a mix of factors — including the pandemic, a protracted recession, and the rise of fellow Scandinavian fair 3 Days of Design — and now seems to be in a transition period, with a new director at the helm (Daniel Heckscher, formerly of Note Design Studio) and a ticking clock at its heels. (The fair was recently sold by the city of Stockholm and the fate of the current fairgrounds is up in the air.) And while I maintain that a possible location change ought to push the fair’s organizers to move the dates to a more welcoming time on the calendar (would love to never Google “is there snow on the ground in Stockholm” again), I also began to reframe my thoughts this year about what success really means against the backdrop of a global design calendar. Might a small, localized fair serve as inspiration for other cities, as we bemoan the scale of waste being produced at each of these outings? Could keeping things local mean less shipping of heavy goods and more focus on material reuse? Doesn’t the scale of Stockholm allow for a greater amount of experimentation? Isn’t it toxic of us to expect brands to launch new products on a yearly schedule when furniture is often years, rather than months, in the making? Could a small, localized fair actually be better?

In many ways, these questions are merely speculative and in no way consider the real-world financials of the fair’s organizing body or its participating brands, and what a less international audience might mean for them. But from a consumer standpoint, it was refreshing to see so many designers directly engaging with waste reduction and modes of reuse — something we rarely see on a larger stage. At Greenhouse, the emerging design section of the fair, which we’ll be covering more in-depth next week, we encountered Jokinen Konu, a Helsinki duo making solid wood furniture from waste created by the construction industry — in this case, the cross-laminated timber scraps that result from cutting windows from a wood frame. Also at Greenhouse was a gorgeous sofa by Konstfack grad Nils Askhagen made from recycled wooden studs. Nick Ross’s entire collection for Contem was made from branches that had been pruned for the first time in nearly a century from old-growth lindens on the island of Kungshatt. Svenskt Tenn took their own textile waste and collaborated with the Swedish rug company Vandra’s Ukrainian atelier to make a limited edition collection of rag rugs. Jenny Nordberg upcycled whole suites of office furniture into the some of the coolest furniture we’ve seen with certainly the best backstory (yes, that is a lamp is made from the metal lip that keeps your markers from rolling away on a whiteboard!)

Could these methods be brought to scale by some of the larger brands? That remains to be seen. But at least in this Scandinavian capital they’re actually trying. Scroll through for those projects and others, in this round-up of our favorite products from the week, with more to come!

“The King’s Hat” by Nick Ross at Public Service Gallery

Designer Nick Ross had one of the more interesting, narratively-driven collections at Stockholm Design Week — furniture made from the pruned branches of linden trees, planted more than 300 years ago on the island of Kungshatt at the direction of King Fredrik I. “Aside from the location’s royal connections, the fact that these trees are still standing is remarkable, and unheard of when it comes to the collection of materials for the production of functional objects,” says Ross. “Coupled with the island’s proximity to central Stockholm, this project embodies an exceptional level of sustainability without compromising on its poetic allure.” The project was a collaboration with Contem, a brand that works primarily with discarded materials, and was on view at Public Service Gallery.

“Frank in the Loom” at Svenskt Tenn

Another project that yielded something beautiful from discards — Svenskt Tenn’s “Frank in the Loom,” a limited-edition collection of handwoven double-weave checkerboard rag rugs made from the leftovers of Josef Frank patterned textiles and Svenskt Tenn’s own solid linen by Vandra Rugs. Up close, you can see traces of Frank’s familiar, beloved patterns.

“Special Effects” by David Taylor at Bukowski’s

At Bukowski’s, Scottish designer David Taylor had a solo exhibition and auction of 25 new pieces including unconventional archetypes like a lamp-on-wheels and a floor clock; some of my favorite pieces included a rolling teal bar cabinet, a crimped, diamond-shaped, square-profiled mirror, and an undulating tomato-red room divider. Of his love of aluminum, Taylor said: “Aluminum is ubiquitous. It is everywhere. It is a standard material that you can buy easily all over the world in a standard format. It is also cheap compared to other metals. You get a lot of aluminium for the money and that allows a greater room for failure, a vital component in all experimental work. Aluminium does not resist or rebel either. Aluminium and metals in general do not have much will of their own. It does as it is told and never takes its own initiative. You leave a semi-finished object in the workshop in the evening, when you come back in the morning nothing has changed. It hasn’t moved, warped, or cracked. It has not reacted to moisture or the cold or anything that I haven’t specifically done, I like that loyalty.”

Layered

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Layered reinterpreted three of its iconic rug designs in new colorways. At the brand’s showroom, a faux gallery was constructed covered outside in rugs and inside with mirrors; this iconic photoshoot was staged at the Amos Rex art museum in Helsinki. PHOTOS BY ANDY LIFFNER

Blå Station

Love Vilhelm, the new Blå Station lounge chair by Bernstrand and Borselius, made from a compression-molded wooden seat that can be customized with padded armrests, upholstered seats, backrests, and neck cushions. Not sure if this pine P.Y.R. seat by David Ericsson is new or not, but it’s also lovely.

Alvsjö Gärd

Alvsjö Gärd debuted as an offsite exhibition in 2023, and for the past two years it’s been absorbed into the SFF fairgrounds. Curated by Hanna Nova Beatrice, it features an array of up-and-coming and mid-career designers working in a more experimental vein, and while I would argue that this version of the exhibition is less successful than its original outing due in large part to the original’s jaw-dropping interior, the level of curation is still quite high. My favorite showcase on view was by Jenny Nordberg, who exhibited pieces from her Executive collection in collaboration with Soeco exploring furniture reuse. Her goal was to use the least desirable parts from a stock of pre-owned office furniture: Sound absorbers that were once deemed unsellable have been reimagined as sofas while damaged supports from height-adjustable desks were combined with whiteboard pen holders into lamps.

Niklas Runesson‘s sculptural wood works straddle an uneasy line between friendly and anthropomorphic (a dining table with legs that look like a beaver tail) and futuristic alien (a chair whose legs seem almost to melt into the ground, Terminator 2–style).

The Finnish-born, Rotterdam-based Jonas Lutz showed thick-legged stools and sinuous wood sculptures.

Anna Maria Øfstedal Eng‘s designs stem from her experimentation with American Hard Maple. “By carving intuitively into the grain, I allow the wood itself to influence the final shape, revealing natural patterns and depth hidden beneath the surface. The material is not just shaped but collaborated with, creating a dialogue between process and material, control and spontaneity.”

Simon Skinner showed lamps made from assemblages of secondhand glassware, like ashtrays and vases, and furniture upholstered in a louche, moiré magenta.

Massproductions

Massproductions introduced the Astro chair, whose tubular frame was inspired by planetary rings.

Radici

Public Studio Pop-Up at SFF

At last year’s fair, we fell in love with the stone intarsia work by Susanne Persson of Public Studio, whose pieces were on view as part of Arranging Things’ pop-up shop and curation. This year, Persson was given free rein at her own pop-up shop in the middle of the fair. There were stone tables inlaid with carrots and squash, fish-shaped trivets, stacked stone candleholders, oversized marble knives and forks, and more. Stay tuned for a larger story on Persson’s work later this spring! (And for the fish trivet that’s on its way to me in Brooklyn, for use at my next dinner party!)

Grythyttan

I had never heard of Grythyttan before this year — one of the perks, we suppose, of a fair diving so deep into a single market. Turns out the Swedish company is more than 100 years old, this stackable High Tech chair was designed by Nisse Strinning all the way back in 1984, and it’s being released in a series of chic new colorways this year.

NO GA

Nordiska Galleriet leaned into its truncated nickname this year — NO GA, pronounced like MoMA — and brought a seriously modern bent to its in-house products. Axel Wannberg debuted his Lamp 53 in poppy cobalt and mustard, while Sami Kallio launched a chair whose legs are meant to resemble the silhouette of the Empire State Building.

Fogia

Andreas Engesvik’s Bollo chair is a modern-day design icon; Pico, his most recent chair for Fogia, takes a similar silhouette and pares down Bollo’s more flamboyant details, making a chair that stands out less but is no less comfortable.

Kasja Willner

At Stockholm Modern, Kajsa Willner showed Associations, explores the seemingly simple: torn strips and torn holes. But these spontaneous actions become more than they first seem. Together, they are shaped into playful objects – a table, a séparé, a stool, a vase, a lamp – where they stand cut out in and out of their own context. The project is a collage of assembled ideas and references: a vacation picture of a torn strip of protective film on a window in Albania, the play of paper dolls, A-ha’s iconic video Take On Me, Fontana’s cut canvases, Tord Boontje’s cut-out ornate shapes, Willner’s own laser-cut shelves, surreal worlds and fragments from the author Martin Buber’s texts. The result is a tension between the malleable and the fixed, between the temporary and the permanent – where each object captures a gesture, an idea, a moment that has now become permanent. 

Interesting Times Gang

Interesting Times Gang launched two new items last week — new colors of their Kelp chair, and two tables for Ingridsdottir interpreting Jonas Bohlin’s iconic designs with new tops made from pressed fishing nets and discarded yogurt containers.

Manufacture by Faye Toogood

Faye Toogood was the Guest of Honor at this year’s fair, and her pavilion was focused on laying bare her creative process, warts and all. Around the perimeter were metal shelving units, featuring stacks of her furniture pieces, molds, prototypes, failed experiments, and more, museum archive–style. On a table in the center were maquettes; the installation aimed to place a spotlight on the need for humanity in design in the face of AI. “The main challenge for furniture designers today is that we are surrounded by a world saturated with design and objects. Do we really need new things? Probably not. So, as designers, we need to understand our role in the future, and I believe our role is to create objects that truly connect, that become integral to how we live – not just in function, but in emotion.”

NK

NK Interior, part of the Swedish department store, Nordiska Kompaniet, teamed up with Kasthall to present Together, highlighting sustainability and local craftsmanship in Swedish design. From top, designers Lukas Carpelan, Jonas Bohlin, and Maxjenny contributed rugs available only at NK.

Form Us With Love

Form Us With Love launched a series of storage cabinets with Dalform and, in their waterfront studio, hosted the Testing Ground Bistro, a two-day pop-up restaurant that highlighted several of their new lighting designs for the Swedish manufacturer Blond.

Matsson Marnell Curated Exhibition

At Matsson Marnell co-founder Magna Marnell’s recently renovated Södermalm apartment, she and Katarina Matsson presented a one-day-only exhibition featuring a stellar roster of designer friends, including Gnilmyd Kcab, who contributed drapey pillows and spiky stainless steel goblets; Alfred Sahlen, who made the tin cabinet pulls in the kitchen; and Public Service, who lent candleholders made from broken pieces of stacked stone. IMAGES BY CAROLINE BORG

Sahco

Under the creative direction of Bengt Thornefors (also the co-founder of Magniberg), Sahco is kiiiiind of killing it. At Kvadrat’s Stockholm showroom, the sister brand showed its 2025 Wild At Heart collection, featuring snakeskins, lace, heavyweight jacquards, and more. I *will* be reupholstering a chair in this chocolate brown leopard!