A STRING shelf. Image from the internet.
When I got my first room of my own (when my grandmother moved to her sisters) I got some furniture that today, again, are popular and the very things to have.
One of them was a STRING shelf, like the one above. I had the exact same model. At the time it was one of the cheapest shelfs you could get… Today this small unit costs SEK 995 in most places. Which is a ridiculous price for a shelf this simple that has been produced for such a long time.
STRING shelves storage system. Image from the internet.
The shelf was designed in 1949 by Nils Strinning. Today it is an entire storage system, not just a simple shelf, that can be combined any way you want it. It is very flexible.
STRING shelves storage system. Image from the internet.
New incarnations of it comes every year.
Do I like the STRING shelf today? No, not really. I did then. It was the shelf for my then entire library of books. Most books I borrowed at the communal library so I didn’t need all that much storage space for them. We couldn’t really afford buying books but I got one or two for each christmas and birthday. I do not like the STRING shelf today. Particularly I do not like the price it has today. In my mind it is still a simple shelf which I remember as something cheap you got when you couldn’t afford something more expensive.
Butterfly chair. Image from the internet.
The other piece of furniture I got for the room of my own was a butterfly-chair. Mine was yellow as the above but had black trimmings around its edges, and black legs. The most uncomfortable chair there is… There was no way you could sit comfortably in it. So most of the time I spent on my bed, which was a 120 cm wide bed (with a dark grey bedcover and lots of pillows). The butterfly chair of a model like the above one also were cheap to buy. You saw them in any room of a teenager at the time. The butterfly chair has made a come-back the last couple of years. No longer a cheap chair though, but over-designed in various expensive materials like leather and furs.
The butterfly chair was designed 1938 and was introduced in Sweden in the 1950-ties. It was designed by Antonia Bonet from Spain and Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy from Argentine. It has been called many names like Sling, Wing, Safari and Butterfly.
The orange wall with me and Bosse. Photo: my father Oskar Tjäder
Combine the STRING shelf and the yellow butterfly chair with this orange-cerise feature wall which I got in my room. It was not painted. It was wallpaper. I don’t remember which color the other walls in the room had, but I suspect it was greyish-white. The picture is of me and Bosse in 1964-65, my boyfriend at the time. I also remember that wool sweater which I bought for my very first salary at my very first job….
I guess it is “sustainable” that old designs still work and are still used… but it gets a bit boring to see the same things again and again.
