February 23, 2022
Celebrating Irregularity: Stockholm Design Week 2022
by Haley Holm-Pedersen
We looked to the leaders of Scandi design for the latest trends in architecture and interiors. Here’s what we learned at Stockholm Design Week 2022!
Historically, repair and mending was common and necessary. Everything from our clothes to our cars required the occasional tune-up to extend their lives. But, as this panel of researchers and makers explained, repair has become less common as mass production has lowered the costs of things we buy. Creating a new culture of mending could fill a gap in sustainability efforts - and cause a change in how we think as consumers.
Natural materials change with time
As Caroline Till of Franklin Till put it, we need a mindset shift. Till spoke on the importance of embracing the complexities of natural materials. We need to “celebrate the irregularities…and the changes that happen over time in the patina and color and texture”.
This celebration of naturalness is long overdue in the flooring industry. We’ve all been trained by advertisers to think of “indestructible” as the gold standard for “good floors”. But is indestructibility actually a good thing?
Often, extremely durable floors are covered in layer after layer of varnishes and coatings to avoid any hint of life lived. The result is floors that look and feel like plastic. Worse, they are more likely to include harsh chemicals in those layers. And they degrade with age, ending their lives in landfills.
We’re adding repair to our reduce, reuse, recycle vocabulary.
We could carry those floors at Stuga, but we choose not to. Our floors are made from wood. They can scratch and dent with heavy use. They’ll develop a rich patina over the years. In our opinions, that’s all part of their beauty!
Small repairs can extend the life of your floors
Stuga floors can be mended, too. Oiled floors are the most forgiving when it comes to scratches - you can brush a bit of touch-up oil on a scratch to minimize its appearance. Yes, even those adorable yet pesky puppy paw marks! Our acrylic floors can be refurbished with a new clear coat if your home is particularly rough on floors. And serious scratches can be mended by a furniture repair pro.
Our floors have been lived on for lifetimes, so we know that they’ll last a lifetime, looking more beautiful at the end of their lives than they did at the beginning.
We’re adding “repair” to our “reduce, reuse, recycle” vocabulary. Products that break in beautifully and allow for mending live longer lives. And that’s one small step in the right direction.
