About Us…
About Scandinavian Modern
Every piece in this collection has been chosen, researched and — where needed — restored by someone who has spent a working lifetime thinking seriously about design.
I’m Colin Davies: a published design historian, writer and academic with over two decades at the heart of British design education. I served as Head of the Design Department at Liverpool John Moores University; Head of School at the University of Bedfordshire; Head of the Design School at De Montfort University, Leicester; and Head of Critical and Historical Studies at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. These aren’t credentials listed for effect — they represent a sustained engagement with how design is understood, taught and written about at the highest level.
My published work reflects that same commitment. I co-authored Limited Language: Rewriting Design (Birkhäuser, Basel), a critical examination of design writing and visual communication. I have contributed essays and reviews to Eye, the international review of graphic design, and to American design publications over many years. Design history is not a background interest — it is the lens through which I look at every object.
Eight years ago I began restoring midcentury and Scandinavian modern furniture as a serious extension of that academic practice. Where most dealers clean and sell, I research, attribute, and restore to a museum conservation standard. That means understanding not just what a piece is, but why it was designed as it was — the material logic, the designer’s intentions, the cultural and industrial moment it came from. That knowledge shapes every decision made at the workbench.
What that means for you
When you buy from Scandinavian Modern, you are not buying a cleaned-up vintage piece with a vague date and a country of origin. You are buying a piece that has been identified, attributed where possible to a specific designer or maker, and restored with a genuine understanding of its design history. The descriptions you read are written by the same person who researched and restored the object — not generated, not delegated.
We are a father and daughter partnership. Loukia brings her own expertise to the environmental and circular economy thinking behind what we do — including our unique resale programme, which allows any piece purchased from us to be returned to the platform if your circumstances change. We believe in design that lasts, and in ownership models that reflect that belief.
Replace forever plastics with forever design.
Colin and Loukia
*please contact us for more information on our circular retail of items already purchased.