Design Considered #33 – Monthly Edition
How to market good design, why age trumps novelty, and more...
#01 - Opening Thought
The furniture and homewares industry defines itself through physical form. After all, at the heart of this multi-billion-dollar business are high-quality, hand-finished goods that must be experienced in person to be appreciated. Yet increasingly, the way names at the higher end of this trade advertise their wares has little to do with this reality. Brands in the design space that previously chased page space in interiors titles now look to digital visibility.
Today, premium furniture marketers are trading in tough-to-define social media metrics and often spending advertising money engaging with people who will never buy what they are selling. The likes stack up, but those behind them are often students, enthusiasts, and aspirants- an audience that admires from a distance but doesn’t spend. Meanwhile, the real customer- the one willing and able to purchase a €10,000 sofa—remains elusive.
Not in Stockholm, where Svenskt Tenn on a Small Scale condenses more than a century of design history from one of the world’s most coveted interiors brands into nine miniature room sets that will surely encourage custom. The exhibition is advertised to passersby via a diorama displayed at Svenskt Tenn’s showroom facade, in the well-heeled district of Östermalm. Beautifully crafted, it invites visitors to explore the brand’s historical exhibition designs from 1934 to the present day. The exhibition of miniatures (made by local talents Ray Atelier) goes well beyond marketing, of course, but it remains an alluring showcase rooted in the same values as the products themselves: craft, quality, and colourful imagination made tangible. It also attracts the right shoppers from the right neighbourhood, with the right spending power, physically onto the shop floor. And for those further afield, well, it’s fair to say the gorgeous models still work a treat when showcased on the small screen.
Svenskt Tenn on a Small Scale is on view at Strandvägen 5, Stockholm, until 19 October 2025.
#02 - Ageing Gracefully
Many hours were spent last weekend wandering the leafy streets of Antwerp’s Berchem district, seeking out a one-of-a-kind beer cafe whose name we’d never saved properly and whose location we couldn’t exactly remember. This was probably due to the amount of beer consumed during our last visit. Yet, the memory of the venue itself was almost photographic in our minds: the antique grandfather clock sitting charmingly behind the bar, with cash payments received via a decorative, old-fashioned Art Deco-era till. The family-friendly establishment featured vintage Belgian beer posters plastered to its walls and offered simple yet stylish furnishings to enjoy your Vedett from. But it was the owners whom we remembered most. A warm, old couple who appeared to possess well over a century of combined years spent joyfully serving thirsty patrons and pumping the country and western music that defined their 1960s youth through vintage speakers.
The search concluded at a handsomely branded coffee establishment, Café Betty, and after some peering through windows and online research, the sad truth was revealed. Café Het Been was the bar we were looking for, but the place no longer existed. Health troubles had forced the family business to close. The signage and the name of its successor were a kindness from the venue’s new owners - a nod to Betty Deckers, who, with her partner, had run Het Been as a true Antwerp ‘brown’ café, a living room for the neighbourhood for many years.
The handsome street-corner venue is now owned by Andy Roasters, a classy local outfit whose ventures serve the city’s best coffee and whose team knows how to commission good interior design. The venue serves espressos from a sleek, hissing machine, and afternoon natural wines and craft beers are paired with locally sourced sourdough and pastries. The designers stripped Café Het Been back to basics and rebuilt it for today, incorporating a tasteful colour palette, custom furniture, and vintage materials, retaining some of the classic beer signage from the past.
While Café Betty still fits the neighbourhood’s drift, all the good design and taste in the world cannot trump history. With its creaky charm, Café Het Been provided what new venues can’t: a genuine sense of place. I have no doubt that the smart owners behind Café Betty will allow their place to evolve in the right way, but for it to live up to its predecessor’s prestige, it will take a very long time. All the best spaces do, and we, as the people shaping spaces, shouldn’t forget this.
#03 - Design Selection
Decorative candles are typically high-margin products, so brands entering this lucrative game sometimes cut corners to maximise profit. Not so with Danish bed-linen label Tekla, whose (1) scented candle debut, created with Irish ceramicist Sara Flynn, is defined by craft rather than compromise. Flynn has translated her sculptural design language into slip-cast, refillable vessels, which are made in Portugal with the wax candles poured in France. Equally craft-conscious, the growing Finnish timber furniture specialist Nikari integrated fellow Finnish firm Poiat’s entire furniture line under the “Poiat Collection” banner earlier this year. A standout piece is Antrei Hartikainen’s (2) Bastone cabinet, featuring elegant oak, slatted sides that filter light and cast rhythmic shadows. It’s produced in Finland by Nikari and offered in natural or black finishes. Continuing the Scandinavian theme via an Italian manufacturing detour, Oslo-based architecture firm Snøhetta has partnered with Brianza-based Citterio to show how contract furniture can be designed for scale but still with style. Their collaboration, (3) Borealis, is an oak-framed modular system whose square modules include armchairs, benches, and two- or three-seat sofas.
The (4) Kantarell Pendant Lamp Ø60 softens the atmosphere of a space without disappearing into it. Designed by Oslo’s Falke Svatun for Copenhagen brand New Works, and made from aluminium and steel, its flared form is anchored by a central cup that conceals the core. Light reflects off a white-coated interior and falls in a calm, downward glow. Finally, another fine piece cast by Brussels-based Maison Vervloet, these five (5) bronze handles demonstrate how hardware can shape architecture when the materials set the tone. Founded in 1905 and now backed by the Belgian interiors group Prado, the atelier continues to shape, sand, and finish every piece by hand.
Another thoughtful edition by the talented Nolan Giles. Beautiful writing.