18 January 2019

Skedblad at Arket

“I’ve wanted to use this chair for a long time. It’s in the same league as many of Axel Einar Hjorth’s chairs, which have become so popular and sought-after at the international auction houses. Christian Halleröd is a cabinet maker and furniture designer with double qualifications from Malmstens. He graduated in 1998 and now works through the design studio Halleroed, which includes his wife Ruxanna Halleröd, an architect from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). They work together on architecture and interior design projects, for example for Acne studios, Byredo and Totême. Recently, a “public living room” furnished by the duo was opened at the Nordiska Museum in Stockholm.

What is so special with Skedblad?

“It has an incredibly strong character, with its rounded, bowl-shaped back. At the same time, it is very soft, comfortable and relatively neat”, says Christian. I was also attracted to the fact that it is made entirely from wood with very fine details. And that it has not been seen so much. I also liked that it was Carl Malmsten who designed it, since you don’t quite associate him with this type of aesthetics. The H&M brand Arket and the furniture manufacturer Tre Sekel acquired the rights to produce Skedblad through the Siv and Carl Malmsten Memorial Foundation. The design studio and Tre Sekel based the product on Malmsten’s drawings, but also on two original chairs bought at auction. A number of prototypes were made to get as close as possible to the original. “Since the chair is so organic, you have to apply a trial and error approach until it is perfect”, Christian says. The first store opened in August 2017 on Regent Street in London, and has been followed by a further 16 arenas for Malmsten’s sturdy Skedblad, including Östra Hamngatan in Gothenburg and Drottninggatan in Stockholm. More stores are underway.

Original chair bought at auction