One of the main trends at this year's Stockholm Furniture Fair was the use of pine, with designers using heat-treated pine for outdoor furniture, creating lighting from pine veneer and reevaluating waterlogged pine.
In Scandinavia, pinewood has become more popular in recent years as younger generations begin to appreciate the material.
While it previously had connotations to the lacquered, yellowing pinewood furniture of the 1970s, pine is being reappraised by many designers for its ease of use and local availability.
Vaarnii only works with pinewood. Photo by Francesco Stelitano
At Stockholm Furniture Fair, there was a wide selection of pinewood furniture in different shapes and forms, with some designers using untreated pale wood that will weather with age while others chose to heat treat or stain the material. Finnish brand Vaarnii, which works solely in pine, showcased its collaboration with British designer Faye Toogood as well as a new chair by French designer Ronan Bouroullec.
Pine filled its entire stand at the annual furniture fair, which also featured a remade pine-veneer version of Swedish designer Hans-Agne Jakobsson's 1960s pendant lamps.
Its stall featured lamps made from pine veneer. Photo by Francesco Stelitano
CEO Antti Hirvonen thinks the reason for pine's newfound popularity is that it feels like a more unusual option since the material has languished in the background for a while.
"I suppose that the design world is just interested in all things new...