Danish Furniture: A Primer

Modern Danish Furniture made its first appearance in the course of Europe’s post war recovery, and immediately turned out to be the signature look for modern 20th century furniture. Because of its completely current yet timeless form, this sort of furniture is still very fashionable today.

The eternal feature of Danish design is probably due to the simple contours and absolute deficiency of ornamentation which identify these furnishings. While nearly all furniture is typically dated by its decorative elements, it is the shortage of these very factors that makes a Jacobsen bench from the late 40s almost indistinguishable from its latest IKEA counterpart. What began as an avant garde fashion in the 50s grew to become universally present in fashionable pads in the 60s and afterward.

The main viewpoint to
Contemporary Dining Room Furniture design is that the form has to be affected by each piece’s function. That was a pretty new idea, since the design theories of the past century commenced with the form and subsequently adapted it to the supposed function of every piece. In this technique, 19th century furniture makers developed some of the most beautiful yet thoroughly awkward chairs and tables ever used. Other furniture designs like Mission designs have also been described by functionalism controlling the form, nevertheless midcentury Danish design incorporated an additional element in Danish design; the human body. In every instance where the surfaces are supposed to be sat on or leaned on by people, those areas were subtly curved to allow for our bodies.

contemporary living room furniture manufacturers were extremely keen on utilizing wood in this type of furniture. From darkest mahogany to cedar and the always predictable maple, this excessive use of wood quickly became a defining element of Danish design. Given that the majority of the individual pieces were designed to support the human form, most chairs are unpadded. Wood surfaces on Danish furnishings are practically never painted, either, and are finished using methods that make it possible for the wood’s natural elegance to be seen. As a notable exception, upholstered items including couches or easy chairs often have no wood visible. Perhaps this is another way of trying to keep ornamentation to a minimum, and the effect is definitely one of simpleness. Even couches with vibrantly patterned upholstery have very simplified forms so the pieces seem to be created from a single piece of foam rather than a block of wood.

While Danish Furniture currently serves a worldwide market, the country which buys the greatest amount of Danish home furniture is Germany, which buys close to six times the volume of household furniture from Denmark as the United States does. To provide the aforementioned two countries along with the balance of the globe, practically 450 corporations are incredibly busy producing Danish-style furnishings and they are employing close to 20,000 people.