Project — 04 / 05
Skaget
A wooden stool drawing on the crude, homemade furniture of early-1900s rural Norway.
- Type
- Design project
- Year
- 2024
Overview
Skaget is named after a mountain on the skyline above my extended family's støl—a summer mountain pasture in Øystre Slidre, Valdres—where I spent time as a child. The støl was filled with simple, homemade furniture from the time it was built, and that vernacular is the starting point for Skaget. I took the most common elements from these pieces and reworked them into something more contemporary and refined: the triangularly notched feet, the nailed-on aprons, and the carrying hole in the seat all remain recognisable, but altered.
Making
Skaget is made from solid ash, finished with a natural, traditional Scandinavian soap treatment. It's built from two shallow trapezoidal volumes folded over a third, with legs splayed just enough to feel stable without disrupting the squared-off silhouette. An unusual angled grain direction runs through the legs, complementing the angular form.
It flat-packs into four parts, assembled with four dowels and four screws. All the parts share the same thickness and can be cut from blanks with minimal waste. The vernacular furniture was economical out of necessity; Skaget takes that same economy as a deliberate choice.
