DESIGN STUDIO
Matsson Marnell is a design studio, founded in 2022 by high-school friends Katarina Matsson and Magda Marnell with a mission to create meaningful objects in a circular manner. Their first collection, Skog, debuted at Älvsjö Gård at Stockholm Furniture Fair 2023, was born in the aftermath of the pandemic, a time when they profoundly reconnected with the wild forests of their childhood memories. A series of wooden pieces exploring the boundaries between nature and the human hand, it finds the perfect balance between raw and refined.
Their second collection Lin, also shown at Älvsjö gård at Stockholm Furniture Fair, explores the female experience, in pieces made out of reclaimed 18th century wood and heckled linen. Existing in the shadowland between fantasy and reality, the objects ask questions about our place in the world, simultaneously representing domestication and dependency of nature. Their sculpture Pistill will be showcased at Trä Art 2024.
All their pieces are handmade and one of a kind, created in close collaboration with skilled craftspeople, using only natural and biodegradable materials. If left in the forest, they will slowly disintegrate and transform into new matters, as if only borrowed and then returned. While traditional woodwork strives to tame the material, Matsson Marnell’s design process starts in the natural shape of each tree or wooden piece, carefully redefining its beauty and letting it come to life. Their work has been featured in Architecural Digest, Sight Unseen, ELLE Decoration, Residence, SVT Morgonstudion among others.
Katarina Matsson is a journalist specializing in design, with a decade of experience from the Swedish ELLE group. Her Instagram account @ettrumtill has over 190 000 followers. Her first book Hemtrevligt – 7 byggstenar för att skapa ett personligt hem, with Elin Lervik, came out on Bonnier Fakta in September 2023. She has acted as chairman of the jury for the ELLE Deco Design Awards Sweden and served as a juror for Partnership Editions Artist Open Call.
Magda Marnell is a fashion designer, educated at the London College of Fashion and Beckmans College of Design, Stockholm. She has run her own fashion brand, exhibiting at several internationally renowned galleries and art venues such as DOX Centre for Contemporary Art and The New Stage of the National Theater in Prague. For the last 13 years she has held different senior design positions at H&M in Stockholm. Magda holds a BA in art history from Uppsala University and has worked as a freelance illustrator for customers like Uncommon Guidebooks and Sofar Sounds.
