Interview with Designer: Nordic-Inspired Collection

In our latest designer interview, we go behind the scenes of Swyft's new Nordic-inspired furniture collection. We sat down with designer Andre to talk us through the vision behind the range, the details that define it, and the challenges of bringing six cohesive pieces to life from a single design language.

Talk us through what we are trying to achieve with the new Nordic-inspired furniture collection.

Andre: "The brief was to build a case goods collection that could stand alongside our best-selling pieces, but this time properly joined up between the living room and the bedroom. One style, one language, so a bedside table and a TV unit clearly come from the same family.

Oak had to lead, because that's what people in the UK and Europe keep choosing. But oak ranges are everywhere, so the real challenge wasn't the material; it was giving it a point of view. I wanted the collection to feel homely and calm, the kind of furniture you stop noticing in a good way, while still reading as modern. And crucially, different from our Mid Century range rather than a variation on it."

Where did you take your inspiration from for the new collection?

Andre: "Nordic design, but the warm end of it rather than the clinical end. Softness was the starting point: nothing in the collection has a sharp edge. Top edges are rounded, corner pillars curve rather than turn, and those pillars flow straight down into tapered legs so the whole piece reads as one continuous, slightly organic shape. That's what stops a 170cm sideboard from feeling like a block.

The other influence was older cabinetmaking. Wooden runners rather than metal ones, which is how drawers used to be made, are quieter, smoother, and a detail you feel every time you open one. It's a small thing that tells you something about how the piece is built."

Talk us through the design elements for each product.

Andre: "The thread running through all six is the circular cut-out. Instead of handles, every drawer and door front has a recessed circle. It does three jobs: it keeps the fronts completely clear so the grain is the thing you see, and it gives the collection a slightly playful signature that's ours.

Sideboard 07 is the anchor. Five drawers; three deep ones down the centre, with a top drawer either side and a lower cabinet door on each flank for the bulkier things.

TV Unit 03 is deliberately low so the screen sits at an easy height and the wall above stays free. Cabinet on the left, two drawers on the right, and an open bay in the middle with an adjustable shelf so a soundbar, a console or a run of vinyl each get the height they need.

Coffee Table 06 is the one I'd point people to. It's double-sided, the drawers open from the front or the back, so it has no bad angle. It works floating in an open-plan room.

Console Table 02 is about the first ten seconds of getting home. One wide drawer on wooden runners, 45cm deep so keys, post and a lamp coexist without eating into a corridor. The only assembly in the collection: legs and a rail.

Chest of Drawers 03 is where we had the most fun. Six drawers, but staggered rather than stacked in even tiers. It breaks up a wide front visually and, practically, gives you a mix of drawer depths instead of six identical boxes.

Bedside Table 03 is the small piece. One drawer, a tight 50 x 40cm footprint so it fits the gap beside a bed rather than filling it, and slim tapered legs that keep the floor visible underneath.

All six come in natural white oak and a walnut stain. The stain was chosen to pull the grain forward rather than cover it, solid white oak legs throughout, with oak solids and white oak veneers over an engineered core in the bodies."

How did you go about designing each product? What's the process?

Andre: "I started with the details rather than the silhouettes. Before drawing a single cabinet I worked out the three things that would define the collection: the cut-out, the radius, and the leg-to-pillar transition. Once those were resolved, each product became a question of applying them at the right scale.

From there it was sketching, then CAD, then prototypes and the prototypes are where most of the real decisions happen. Radii in particular you can't judge on screen. Too tight and it looks unfinished; too generous and it goes soft and childlike. That got dialled in by hand on physical samples.

I also designed the range as a set from the beginning, not as individual pieces we'd later try to match. Heights, depths and leg tapers were coordinated across all six so the bedroom and living pieces genuinely belong together."

How long has it taken to design and develop the new furniture collection, from concept through to launch?

Andre: "Around nine months from the first concept sketches to launch. Concept development took the first few months and was deliberately broad, since the brief left the retro/Nordic reference open. Prototyping and refinement was the longest phase, then tooling, testing and production sign-off."

From a design perspective, what areas were the most challenging?

Andre: "Two things, and both of them are details rather than big structural decisions.

The first was the cut-outs. They look like the simplest thing in the collection and they were the hardest to get right. A circle in a drawer front has to do a lot at once: be comfortable to hook a finger into, stay in proportion with the full family of products, and pull a loaded drawer without feeling mean. Diameter, depth and the radius on the inside edge all got tested by hand, over and over, because you can't judge how something feels to grip from a drawing.

The second was making one material behave like one material. Each piece combines solid white oak with white oak veneer over an engineered core, which is the right way to build a stable cabinet, but it means two forms of the same timber have to look like a single continuous surface. The grain has to carry across the drawer fronts, or the staggered layout on the chest stops reading as one face. The kind of things nobody notices when it's right and everybody notices when it isn't."

What other Swyft products are best paired with this collection?

Andre: "The warm oak and softened edges sit naturally with our more relaxed upholstery, anything in a neutral or oatmeal weave, where the tone of the fabric and the tone of the oak do the same job. The walnut stain handles stronger colours better, so it's the one to pair with deeper greens and blues.

In the living room, the coffee table and TV unit were designed around a low sofa like Model 03, so the proportions work best there. In the bedroom, the chest and bedside table are intended to read as a set with an upholstered bed like Bed 02 and Bed 05, the wood balances a large soft headboard rather than competing with it."

Shop the Nordic-inspired collection here.