The GRAND Furniture Series Inspired By Handbag Details

Project Name

The GRAND Furniture Series

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Furniture Design, Industrial / Product Design

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Project Name	The GRAND Furniture Series	Posted in	Furniture Design, Industrial / Product Design

When you first come across GRAND's first series of furniture, the image of a classy, delicate lady's handbag comes to mind. Simple and elegant and yet impressive and appealing, they are stimulating to the touch. So feel the materials, see how they work and see what’s hidden inside. GRAND is a newborn collaboration between the designer Mathieu Gustafsson and cabinet maker Niklas Karlsson, who chose a name that reflects their vision for design and the quality of their work. As they say themselves, ''when creating our own brand we didn’t want to compete in low pricing, we rather wanted to contribute in artistic expression and quality''. LOCK and LIGHT are the first two pieces designed and executed by the Stockholm duo which were launched at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2013, receiving rapturous attention from visitors.

In the LOCK cabinet, the ball clasp looking mechanism stands out and becomes the centre of the attention. The ingenious way this cabinet actually locks is reminiscent of the details found in old fashioned women’s handbags where the brass finishing along the edge of the doors ends in a small brass ball giving the generally minimalistic piece originality and a strong identity. Like the clasp on a handbag, this shiny version lures and invites you to unlock it to reveal the pine veneered interior, inside.

This subtle way of playful experimentation with materials and tactility is also obvious in the imposing LIGHT wardrobe which winks at the legendary Palmgrens' bags. Renowned in the 1960sfor their legendary handbag in which leather and rattan were successfully combined, this Swedish company rightfully became world famous. GRAND were able to translate that combination in an even more ground breaking way, covering the sides of the wardrobe with rattan. The blending of thin white lacquered birch with an admittedly misused material such as rattan, gives an elegant result, where added nobility comes into play through the application of the brass details.

So in a quite crucial period for the design world, GRAND seems to be a prominent example of an alternative way of creating high quality goods ''based on a search for the essential in concept and in shape''.

After their success at the Stockholm Furniture Fair 2013,GRAND will present their first series of furniture at Ventura Lambrate in Milan from 09 until 14 April 2013.