Brother and sister IKEA designers Marianne Hagberg and Knut Hagberg created the BJÖRKSNÄS series – classic solitaires made to last a long time and survive the constant shifts in interior design trends.
“The inspiration comes from our Scandinavian roots and from the reality of everyday life. It was important for us to give the furniture friendly proportions so they can fit in many rooms,” explained Marianne.
This was not the first time Knut and Marianne took a fresh approach with Swedish solid wood. April 2014 saw the launch of the NORNÄS collection, a series of furniture made in Sweden of solid untreated pine from northern Swedish forests. With NORNÄS, Knut and Marianne conveyed the natural feel of light Norrland pine, and the simplicity of modern Scandinavian design.
The idea of the BJÖRKSNÄS collection was to make something similar to what Knut and Marianne had done before with pine for NORNÄS, but this time with birch. The aim was to vitalise birch by working with the material in a new way.
BJÖRKSNÄS was a new way of using birch – the strong, blond material that looks, feels and smells like the Scandinavian forest. To start with, the series included a sofa and a glass-door cabinet. The sofa was called a kitchen bench and was a modern take on the ones found in most rural homes in Sweden in the 1800s. The glass-door cabinet had exciting details such as small leather handles. The solid birch gave each part a unique appearance, with natural variations in grain, colour and pattern.
In 2021 BJÖRKSNÄS is still sold at IKEA, but now as a bedroom series with beds, bedside tables and a chest of drawers.
