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The Danes Love Colour After All

Some years ago – when this blog was just a fledgling – I wrote a piece for The Financial Times about whether good design makes you happy. It was based largely around the Danish interior style of minimal furniture, pared back design and muted colours. The pictures were, as you might expect, largely pale and white with accents of wood. Today, as part of a collaboration with BoConcept, I wanted to tell you how the Danes have now embraced colour which means we probably all will too – if we haven’t already.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

Back then I wrote: “Interiors are typically clean and minimalist: white walls and floorboards provide a structural, almost architectural backdrop to simple, utilitarian furniture. The colour palette is monochrome and muted, with perhaps a single splash of colour from a lamp, cushion or chair. The curtains, if indeed there are any, are white and open.” (And, I wrote – because back then it needed explaining – “every house is full of candles – a Danish obsession, which helps provide hygge,  the state to which every Danish home aspires”.)

“This distinct approach to interiors dates back to the years following the second world war, when architects and designers promoted the idea that affordable, high-quality furniture would enable the average Dane to live better. That view still holds true today, more than 60 years on, and their simple and uncluttered homes are admired around the world.”

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

The story was read and approved by the editor. And so I sent over suggestions for pictures. “Haven’t you got anything with more colour?” they asked.

“Well not really,” I said. “That’s kind of the Danish style.”

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

There was a pause and a small sigh. But the story ran, albeit with lots of slightly off-message colourful images – mostly accessories –  to hide the fact that the walls and floors were all very pale, which doesn’t show up well on newsprint and I went on to write a series of pieces about international interior design styles.

Cut to 2018 and my erstwhile editor would have found it much easier to illustrate that story as the Danes appear to have discovered colour at last.

It was during a meeting with BoConcept earlier this year, when we were discussing the possibility of working together, that I realised. Like many of us, I had assumed that the collection was mostly grey, wood and natural materials. I have a clock in the bathroom made from Cararra marble that came from there. It’s minimal, grey and simple in style. Quintessentially Danish you might say.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

But, to my surprise, as I walked around the store, which is full of really great pieces by the way as you can see from the images, there seemed to be colour everywhere. Gold velvet and navy cord, green linen and lots of pink. It wasn’t at all what I expected.

I spoke to Christine Thorsteinsson, the company’s head of product, and asked if it was actually true that the Danes don’t use much colour, or if that was just our perception following years of Scandi Noir TV. She said: “It is true and it’s part of our heritage and roots. The restricted colour palette is a huge part of our culture, history and landscape.”

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

The fashion for grey, she believes, came from the financial crisis. “There was a need for subtle colours that weren’t too edgy.”

But the colourful twenties are coming. “We still have a lot of subtle settings, but we know that colour is going to be a huge story in 2020 and we are starting to think about that while always bearing in mind where we come from and our heritage as a furniture brand.”

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

And it’s true that not just BoConcept, but all Danish design remains true to its original concept of well-made pieces with clean lines and no extraneous details. As I wrote back in 2012 (so these numbers might be out of date) there are 400 furniture companies in Denmark producing about €1.75bn worth of goods, of which 80 per cent are sold abroad, making homewares the country’s fifth most important export industry.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

Much of this furniture is still influenced by those original designers such as Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Verner Panton and Poul Henningsen. Their work, also known as Danish Modern, is based on the minimalist principles of the German Bauhaus movement. The lines are simple and every element of every piece is there for a reason. The old adage that “form follows function” is rewritten in Danish design, where the two are of equal importance.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

BoConcept, which was founded in 1952,  adheres to those same principles and has nearly 300 stores in 60 countries. Their furniture, as you can see from these images, is simple, unfussy and, you’ll have to take my word for this, well made.

This season they have chosen to focus on four main colours – Moody Blue, Home Grown, which features not only lots of forest greens but also accents of plum and gold, Solid Earth – this is the one we’ll all like – terracotta, dusty pink and matt black with brushed brass all with a classic mid-century feel and Icon Brown, which fits with the current high street palette of rich ochre and rustic brown that was also so prevalent in Milan Salone earlier this year.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

It goes without saying that all these colours work against a classic grey background but if you hadn’t investigated this Danish company on the basis that it might all just be a little too stark and Scandi for you then maybe it’s time to have a look. And if you’re living in a minimal Danish palette of all the shades of grey then it might be time to consider adopting the latest Nordic look.

autumn/winter 18 by BoConcept

Or just take a wander through these rooms and see if they inspire you. And yes that leafy rug is from there too. See what I mean?

 

 

This post was sponsored by BoConcept. It’s a company I have liked for many years and I wanted to work with them but, as always, I decided what the story would be based on what I saw from the company and what I thought would be most relevant and interesting to you. I hope you agree with my editorial choices. 

 

Kate Watson-Smyth

The author Kate Watson-Smyth

I’m a journalist who writes about interiors mainly for The Financial Times but I have also written regularly for The Independent and The Daily Mail. My house has been in Living Etc, HeartHome and featured in The Wall Street Journal & Corriere della Sera. I also run an interior styling consultancy Mad About Your House. Welcome to my Mad House.

3 Comments

  1. Lovely piece. Happy to have found your blog. I enjoyed my peruse. I wonder if the Danes are a Scandi anomaly? Some time ago I came onto the website for Svenskt Tenn, a Swedish home goods and design store since early 30s in Stockholm and it is awash in color. Hello from the Finger Lakes district in west central NYState. Cheers!

    1. The Danes, Swedes and Norwegians all have a distinctive design personality – the Swedes are, generally speaking, more colourful and country style against the Danish more architectural feel and the Norwegian love of natural wood. However, they often tend to get caught up together under the umbrella of “Scandi-style”. I wrote about all three as well as Icelandic and Finnish style when I worked for the FT. Obviously these are generalisations and there are similiarities between the styles but they are all very distinctive as well.

  2. I couldn’t agree more with your brilliant editorial choices. I’m reading this post at the end of a very busy day and I have found it not only inspiring (how I wish I could replace all my furniture with lovely stuff from BoConcept) but relaxing and soothing- hygge indeed! Thank you.

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