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.