Blame the Design, Not the Colour: Why Brown Furniture Was Never the Problem

Scandinavian Modern — Newsletter 09

Chocolate brown has returned to professional designers’ mood boards, while darker woods are beginning to overshadow the blond, flat-patina furniture that dominated interiors for so long.

It has always struck me as a mild form of vandalism to watch vintage furniture stripped and sanded to within an inch of its life simply to remove every trace of its original colour.

There is also renewed interest in heritage, craftsmanship and longevity. This is why my store exists: a love and respect for design—good design. Teaching design history for many years taught me to respect the designers and manufacturers who explored the ideas of modernism.

People are beginning to separate modernist design from the dark, forbidding Victorian past through its aesthetic and visual language, rather than by colour alone.

Modernism has always embraced colour, from Ercol to Memphis. If a piece looks drab in brown, blame the design, not the colour. Sanding and stripping will not transform indifferent furniture into good design.

Ercol proves the point within its own ranges. Old Colonial furniture uses much of the spindle-and-stretcher vocabulary associated with the Windsor chairs collectors covet, and it often carries a dark finish. Yet it has generally been valued below the blond Windsor pieces because the underlying silhouette is heavier, more conservative and more traditional.

Same maker. Similar colour family. Different design language.

It is the design language that decides which object you want in your dining room. Brown was never the problem. It was never the solution either.

Put down your sanders

Please appreciate what the design is actually expressing—and enjoy the story.

Watch the accompanying Instagram Reel.

Original finishes matter. Lightly conserved, not stripped.