During the mid-20th century, Swedish and Scandinavian design gained attention across the US and became associated with simplicity, functionality and craftsmanship.
Today, bringing Scandinavian design into your home is less about following a particular look and more about how you choose and use the things around you. Here are a few principles to help you bring that feeling into your own space.
More Than Minimalism: Find Your Lagom
Scandinavian design is often reduced to white walls, pale wood and very little furniture. But Swedish design has never been quite that simple. Functionality and reduced form are part of its history, while contemporary Swedish design has grown to include colour, sustainable materials, craftsmanship and more conceptual ideas.
The trick is not to make a room as minimal as possible. It is to know when enough is enough.
That is where lagom can be useful. Lagom is a Swedish word that basically means not to much and not to little. Think of it as finding balance: enough to make a room interesting, but not so much that every object is competing for attention.
Think about balance:
1. Enough objects to create interest
Choose pieces that add something through shape, texture, colour or function.
2. Enough empty space to let them breathe
Not every surface needs to be filled. Leaving some space around an object can make you notice it more.
3. Enough colour to add personality
A Scandinavian interior does not have to be colourless. One strong colour can sometimes do more than a room full of matching shades.
4. Enough function to make the room livable
The things you live with should have a reason to be there. A beautiful glass can be part of the everyday table. A vase can hold the flowers you picked on the way home.
Viva is designed around exactly that idea. The collection brings together glasses, cups, a carafe and other pieces for everyday use and the modern dining table. The carafe has a practical detail built into its design: the lid doubles as a small drinking glass.
Good design does not have to wait for a special occasion.
Some designs become part of a home simply because people keep choosing them. Snowball, designed by Ann Wolff in 1973, has sold more than 15 million pieces worldwide.
For Snowball's 50th anniversary, Hanna Hansdotter created The Rock as a tribute and paraphrase of the iconic design. It reuses the familiar irregular surface of the votive gives it a dramatic silhouette and contemporary colour palette.
Let Nature Into the Home
Nature is one of the easiest places to start if you want to bring a Scandinavian feeling into your home. Swedish design has long drawn on the landscape, natural materials, midnight sun and the changing Nordic light.
But you do not need to redesign your entire room around nature.
Start with what is growing outside.
A vase does not have to be reserved for a perfect bouquet. Some of the most Swedish arrangements are the simplest: a handful of wildflowers gathered on a walk, placed in a vase and brought to the table.
A simple vase can make room for flowers to be a little wild. Let the stems fall in different directions rather than arranging every flower to the same height. A clear crystal Limelight vase provides a clean frame for a loose, seasonal bouquet, letting the flowers remain the focus. The collection's wide vase openings are designed to frame and highlight the flowers they hold.
In Sweden, flowers are also part of the rituals of summer. Midsummer traditions include picking flowers from the surrounding landscape and making floral crowns.
Bring some of that feeling home. Let the season decide what goes into your vase. A few stems from a garden, meadow flowers from a walk or a branch that catches your eye can be enough.
Choose Craftsmanship
Scandinavian design is not only about what an object looks like when it is finished. How the product is made matters too.
At Kosta Boda, that relationship with glass goes back to 1742. The furnaces at Kosta have been lit since July 26, 1742, making it Sweden's oldest active glassworks. Almost 300 years of glassmaking have built generations of knowledge around the material.
You can see that relationship with the material in Crackle. Its irregular surface is created through a hands-on glassmaking process, giving each piece its own character.
When choosing pieces for your own home, look beyond whether something matches the room. Look at the material. Look at the details. Think about how it was made and what you might notice about it years from now.
That is where craftsmanship becomes part of the experience of living with an object.
Bring It Home
Scandinavian design does not have to look a certain way. Start with what you already love, make room for what you use and let a little of the outside world in. The rest is up to you.
