LOOM: THE HERITAGE OF SCANDINAVIAN MODERN STYLE

At Podium, one of the ways to add extra appeal to solid wood furniture is to combine various natural materials with our design pieces made of high-quality wood. So, along with strong attention to design and superior craftsmanship in woodworking, we create pieces of furniture that have distinctive characters and attractiveness and give a different experience for users.

‘LOOM’ is the latest sub-collection from Podium. It takes place under our ‘Designer Collaborations’ collection, a collaboration between Podium and a Swedish industrial designer ‘Karl Malmvall’ who believes in the design objects that can provide aesthetics, functionality and practical production and meet market demands.

Among the outstanding works invented by Karl Malmvall that many people may have seen are Step Stepladder and Wick Chair from Design House Stockholm.

With years of experience working with world-class furniture brands, Malmvall understands applying a wide range of materials in furniture, which is the core of LOOM. The designer has chosen the traditional material in the Scandinavian furniture industry, like paper cord, to create the design pieces with Podium this time. The paper cord is a sustainable material because it does not cause any adverse effects on the environment and future generations and provides good ventilation. Moreover, it also makes an interior atmosphere that looks soft and cozy.

Every furniture model of LOOM was designed to present “The Heritage of Scandinavian Modern Style”. The designer was inspired by growing up in his family running a furniture factory in Sweden since 1898. Therefore, he became familiar with using the paper cord as a material in furniture design according to the Scandinavian woven chairs.

For the primary wooden material, Podium selected high-quality ash wood, from a sustainable forest, imported from the northern area of ​​America to produce all furniture for LOOM. Ash is a high-impact resistant wood with natural light tones, suitable for making various colors. It is also easy to bend and clearly shows the natural pattern of the wood. So, we can say that LOOM is an excellent combination of ash wood, paper cord, and the high-quality steel that is structured for the chairs’ woven backrests.

Apart from the beauty, function and simplicity of Scandinavian-style furniture, we believe that LOOM can also enhance users’ quality of life. It is because all pieces were designed to stand everyday use. Moreover, the paper cord is a material that will last for many years, so do not worry about using it. This type of material does not require more specialized care or maintenance than other furniture. And if the paper cord is worn-out, you can bring your furniture back to get them rewoven at the Podium factory and continue using them again and again.

For Malmvall, this reflects sustainability, promotes a better quality of life for human beings through furniture design, and raises the environmental friendliness of natural materials woven by hands without any bleaching or dyeing process.

LOOM is a literal source of home décor inspiration and the best choice if you want to create a comfortable, cozy Scandinavian atmosphere in your houses.

All design pieces from LOOM can help you create a clean, tidy interior that gives coziness and practical uses. This sub-collection also offers a variety of furniture, from lounge chairs for your living areas to dining chairs, benches and dining tables for the whole family. These simple design pieces are key elements of your access to a better living environment in your house.

Here, we’ll take you through each piece of furniture from LOOM.

Let’s start with the ‘LOOM Lounge Chair-01‘, a lounge chair that looks comfortable at first sight. It has a detail of the backrest that can support the body and the back of the users perfectly, together with the seat and backrest made of woven paper cord, making it more breathable compared to the furniture with traditional upholstered leather or fabrics. Thanks to the stable construction and the right height for a one-seat sofa, you’ll feel safe in use and find out that this product has the right proportions, not too small or too big, allowing you to apply it to both small and large living spaces without inconsistency with the size of the areas.

Along with another design piece called ‘LOOM Center Table-01‘, we proudly offer this center table with a simple shape made of ash planks. It is stylish, practically meets users’ needs according to Malmvall’s design style, and will complement the functionalities of placing your stuff as you sit in the lounge chair from LOOM.

It is followed by two more dining chairs, starting from ‘LOOM Chair-01‘, a dining chair with armrests that flow from its backrest made of woven paper cord. It is a model developed from the lounge chair we mentioned earlier, giving them noticeably similar shapes, but invented to be proportional to being a dining chair for the head of the table. Also, we present another chair model, ‘LOOM Chair-02‘, a side chair distilled down to a simpler form with only a backrest. This chair surely comes to fulfill your dining table for gatherings of friends and family.

Certainly, both dining chair models are solid pieces with outstanding designs and high-quality materials according to the Podium’s solid wood chairs’ production standards that never disappoint our customers.

Including a dining table called ‘LOOM Table-01‘, this furniture model was designed using wooden planks perfectly arranged together to form a tabletop with grooves between each sheet. Still, it has to come with Podium’s quality. So, we decided to use the cross-laminated timber or “CLT” technique, using hackberry as the core and ash as surfaces, to protect the tabletop from the buckling of solid wood instead of the wooden support structure used in other dining tables. It’s because the support structure won’t look proper with this model’s tabletop with grooves between each plank.

Moreover, each leg of the table presents a unique and eye-catching look, showing two pieces of solid timber spreading apart. For the length of this model, our customers can choose from 2 sizes, 2.4 and 2.6 meters.