The Calm Scandinavian Bathroom: 10 Pieces That Earn Their Place
The bathroom is the smallest room and the one you use most. Ten Nordic pieces, from the pump on the basin to the basket in the corner.
Read More →Nordic Kids' Rooms: 10 Pieces That Survive Childhood
A child's room is the only room in the house expected to change every two years, which is why so much of what goes into it is bought to be thrown away. The furniture is sized for a body that will outgrow it, and the whole thing is often decorated around a theme that will be embarrassing by school age.
Nordic children's rooms tend to resist that. They are built from the same materials as the rest of the house — birch, wool, felt, painted ash — in colours that would not look strange in a living room. This list is ten pieces chosen on that principle: a chair, a table, something to ride, wool for the bed, a light for the dark half of the year, two kinds of storage, a meal set, a glass and a pair of scissors. All ten are in stock and available to compare across the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark on ScandiDeals.
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1. Nofred Mouse Chair – Two Ears, Four Legs
A child's first chair is usually plastic and usually replaced. The Nofred Mouse Chair in birch is neither. It is built from birch plywood: a round seat on four turned legs, with a backrest cut into two large ears that read as a mouse from across the room and as a shape from close up. The laminated edge is left visible, which is honest and also hard-wearing. Light enough for a three-year-old to drag over to the window, solid enough to survive being stood on, which is what actually happens to children's chairs.
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2. Ferm Living Feve Writing Table – A Working Surface, Curved
Most children's desks are rectangles scaled down. The Ferm Living Feve kids writing table in elm green is a soft kidney shape on four tapered legs, painted a muted olive that belongs closer to a garden than a nursery. The curve does real work: a child sitting at the concave edge is surrounded by the surface instead of facing a corner of it, and two can sit along the outside without knocking elbows. Ferm Living is a Copenhagen house, and this is a piece of furniture rather than a toy with legs.
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3. Kid's Concept Neo Rocking Mammoth – Something To Ride Indoors
The Kid's Concept Neo rocking mammoth in grey is shaggy, long-piled and much closer to a small animal than to a rocking horse. The body sits on two plywood rockers with a pale wooden handle to hold, and there are small ivory tusks under a fringe that falls over the eyes. Kid's Concept is Swedish and has a habit of making toys that look like furniture when nobody is riding them. This one holds a corner quietly, which is more than most ride-on toys manage.
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4. Klippan Yllefabrik Bää Blanket – Wool, Not Fleece
The Klippan Yllefabrik Bää children's blanket in grey is woven wool, with rows of pale sheep standing on a grey ground and the whole pattern reversed on the back. Klippan has been working wool in southern Sweden since 1879, and the weight is the point: heavy enough to stay on a child through the night, breathable enough that they do not wake up too warm. Bää is Swedish for the noise a sheep makes, which a two-year-old will work out without being told.
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5. Star Trading Night Light – A Whale For Dark Hours
Overhead light at bedtime is the enemy. The Star Trading Functional LED night light is a soft-bodied whale, 16.7 centimetres long, glowing warm amber through white silicone rather than the blue-white most small lamps give off. There is one dark dot for an eye and a raised tail, and nothing else to unscrew or break. Star Trading is Swedish, and much of what it makes is for the months when the dark arrives in the afternoon.
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6. Muuto Restore Basket – Felt That Holds Its Shape
Toy storage usually means a plastic crate. The Muuto Restore storage basket in brown green is 28 by 28 centimetres of thick pressed felt, soft-sided but stiff enough to stand up empty, with a hand-sized slot cut into two of its faces. It takes a knock without denting and makes no noise when it is dropped, both of which matter at floor level. The dark olive sits quietly against a wooden floor. Muuto is Danish, and this is one of the few storage objects that looks better half full.
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7. House Doctor Rama Baskets – Two Sizes, Two Lids
Some things should be out of sight. The House Doctor Rama storage baskets with lids come as a pair, one small and one large, woven from twisted natural fibre into a beehive shape with a domed lid and a knotted loop on top. The lid is the whole argument: small parts, odd socks and the pebbles carried home from the summer go in and stay in. House Doctor is Danish, and standing together the two sizes read as one group rather than as two bins.
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8. Done by Deer Stick&Stay Set – A Plate That Stays
The Done by Deer Deer Friends Stick&Stay dinner set in powder is three pieces of soft silicone in three tones of dusty pink: a plate with raindrops moulded into the rim, a bowl with clouds around it, and a beaker with a sleeping giraffe. The base grips a smooth table, which is the difference between a meal and a floor. Done by Deer is Danish. Silicone survives being thrown, which children's tableware has to, and it comes out of the dishwasher unchanged.
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9. Design Letters Kids Eco Glass – Real Glass, Child Size
At some point a child should be handed real glass. The Design Letters Kids Eco drinking glass, two-pack in blue is the sensible place to start: a short, straight-sided tumbler in a strong cobalt, sized for a small hand and low enough to be set down without aiming. The colour does the work a printed motif usually does, and it will not date. Design Letters is Danish. There are two in the pack, which is honest about what happens to the first one.
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10. Fiskars Moomin Scissors – Blunt Tips, Sharp Blades
The Fiskars Moomin children's scissors in the Snork Maiden print are 13 centimetres, with rounded tips and stainless blades made in Finland, set in yellow handles printed with Tove Jansson's characters among small flowers. Fiskars has been making blades in Finland since the seventeenth century, and it shows: these cut paper cleanly instead of chewing it, which is why most children give up on safety scissors. Blunt ends, sharp edges. That is the correct order of priorities.
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Final Thoughts
None of this is a nursery scheme. A child's room fills up on its own, and the only decision that matters is what you put in it that will still be there in five years. Birch plywood, woven wool, pressed felt, twisted fibre, silicone and Finnish steel all age in ways that are easy to live with. Printed plastic does not.
The other advantage of buying slowly is that it becomes easier to buy well. All ten pieces here are in stock in the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark, and prices across the Nordic shops move from week to week. Compare them on ScandiDeals before you commit to the table.
