10 Pieces for a Scandinavian Home Office You Want to Sit In
A desk that reads as furniture, two lamps instead of one, and somewhere for the small things to live: 10 Nordic pieces for a home office you use all winter.
Read More →The Calm Scandinavian Bathroom: 10 Pieces That Earn Their Place
The bathroom is usually the smallest room in the house and the one you use first and last every day. It is also the least forgiving. The surfaces are hard, the light is unkind, and anything left out is immediately visible. Nordic bathrooms tend to read as calm not because they are large but because there is less in them, and because what is there was chosen once rather than replaced twice a year.
That is the whole principle behind this list. Ten pieces, working outwards from the pump on the basin to the basket in the corner: a Danish dispenser, two towels with very different weaves, a mat in a colour that has nothing to do with its fibre, a stool that doubles as a shelf, and a toilet brush with a wooden handle. All ten are in stock and available to compare across the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark on ScandiDeals.
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1. Stelton Fjord Soap Dispenser – The One Always Out
Everything else in a bathroom can be put away. The soap cannot, so it may as well be worth looking at. The Stelton Fjord soap dispenser in black holds 30 cl, enough that refilling becomes a monthly job rather than a weekly irritation, and the matte black finish does not record fingerprints the way polished chrome does. Stelton is Danish and has spent decades on objects that are handled constantly. The pump takes the back of a wet hand without sliding across the basin.
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2. MUUBS Kama Toothbrush Holder – A Beaker That Stays Put
Most toothbrushes stand in a glass that was never meant for the job and shows every drip. The MUUBS Kama toothbrush holder in sand is a straight-sided beaker in a warm greyish sand, weighted enough that it stays where you put it when a brush is pulled out in a hurry. MUUBS is Danish and keeps to muted, earthy tones, which is why it settles next to a black pump instead of arguing with it.
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3. MOEBE Wall Mirror – Small Enough To Feel Right
A bathroom mirror does not need to fill the wall. The MOEBE rectangular wall mirror in black is 30 by 40 centimetres and deliberately modest: enough glass for a face and a pair of hands, held in a thin dark frame that draws one clean line above the basin. MOEBE is a Copenhagen studio with a habit of reducing things to their fewest parts. In a small room a smaller mirror reads as a chosen object; a large one reads as a fitting.
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4. Marimekko Unikko Solid Bath Towel – The One You Reach For
Unikko is Maija Isola's poppy, drawn in 1964, and the most recognisable pattern Finland has produced. This is the quiet end of that family: the Marimekko Unikko solid bath towel in ecru is 70 by 150 centimetres of cotton in a single undyed-looking tone. It is generous enough to wrap around rather than clutch, and ecru has the useful habit of looking clean against white tiles without looking clinical. Two good towels beat six mediocre ones.
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5. Humdakin Waffle Bath Towel – Dries Faster Than Terry
A bathroom with poor ventilation is hard on towels. Thick terry that never fully dries starts to smell within the week, and waffle weave is the standard answer. The Humdakin Waffle bath towel in oak is 70 by 135 centimetres of it, in a soft brown-beige that hides ordinary use. The open grid holds less water and lets air through the cloth, so it comes back to dry in hours rather than overnight. Humdakin is Danish and stays close to sand, oak and stone.
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6. Meraki Towel Hangers – Ten Loops, One Small Fix
This is the least glamorous entry on the list and possibly the most useful. Towels tend to arrive with a loop too small for a hook, so they end up folded over a rail with the wet side pressed against the wall. Meraki's towel hangers, ten to a pack, attach to the corner of a towel and give it a proper loop, so it hangs with air on both sides. Ten cover a whole household, including the kitchen.
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7. Ferm Living Ekko Bath Mat – Warmth Where Feet Land
Cashmere here is the colour, not the fibre: a pale beige with a faint warmth in it that sits between white tile and a wooden floor without matching either exactly. The Ferm Living Ekko bath mat in cashmere is 50 by 70 centimetres, the honest size for something that gets lifted and washed rather than admired. Ferm Living is Danish, and Ekko is one of its quieter designs, with texture doing the work a pattern would otherwise do.
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8. Zone Denmark A-Stool – A Seat And A Shelf
A stool is a good test of whether a bathroom was planned or merely filled. The Zone Denmark A-Stool in soft grey is somewhere to sit while the bath runs, somewhere to set a folded towel within reach, and somewhere to rest a book and a cup when the bath is the point of the evening. Zone Denmark has made bathroom objects for a long time. The stool is low, light and easy to move out of the way.
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9. Zone Denmark Ume Laundry Basket – The Pile Gets Somewhere
Clothes on the floor are what actually makes a small bathroom feel chaotic, and the usual remedy, a tall plastic bin, takes the one corner you needed. The Zone Denmark Ume laundry basket in eucalyptus is round and low instead: 40 centimetres across, 29 high, in a soft green that reads as a colour rather than an appliance. It holds roughly a household's day, which is the right unit for a basket you empty often.
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10. Iris Hantverk Iris Toilet Brush – Birch, Not Moulded Plastic
The last object in the room is usually the ugliest, and it does not have to be. The Iris Hantverk Iris toilet brush with birch handle and grey cup comes from a Swedish brushmaker whose brushes are hand-bound by visually impaired craftspeople, a tradition the company has kept for generations. The handle is turned wood, the head can be replaced when it wears, and the whole thing stands beside the cistern looking like a tool rather than an apology.
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Final Thoughts
None of this is about making a bathroom resemble a hotel. It is about reducing the number of decisions the room asks of you: one pump that needs no thought, two towels instead of six, a mat that goes in the machine, a basket that takes the floor pile. Restraint in a small room is less a style than a practicality. There is simply nowhere for excess to go.
Buy once where you can. A birch brush with a replaceable head, a heavy beaker that will not tip, a stool that will outlast three bathrooms: these cost more at the start and considerably less across ten years. Every piece here is in stock in the UK, Germany, Norway and Denmark, and you can compare prices across the Nordic shops on ScandiDeals before you decide which corner to start with.
