Hem, new furniture brand from online retailer Fab, debuts
Scandinavian design fans have a change of address (OK, a new URL). Hem, the Swedish word for home, is a new online store developed by Fab Europe and its 2014 acquisition, the Finnish firm One Nordic. Focusing on contemporary international design, quality materials and cost-reducing, flat-pack, factory-to-customer delivery, Hem launches Tuesday, offering preorders for more than two dozen products.
Among them: The Levels light fixture by the Stockholm design firm Form Us With Love which comes in three sizes and a selection of colors, including a coppery finish, from $299, and the Alle table, available in three sizes and starting at $799 in solid oak. The photo above shows both the Alle table and the Levels light fixture.
An online tool on the website will allow shoppers to customize tables, shelves and cabinets for their spaces.
The $1,119 Hai Lounge Chair by acclaimed Italian industrial designer Luca Nichetto, neatly exemplifies the Hem aesthetic. Upholstered in a wool fabric called Razzle Dazzle (also used for $85 accent pillows) the chair sits on a lean and elegant metal frame that has the same midcentury flair as classics that are two to three times the cost, and the Hai was designed for easy shipping and hassle-free assembly.
“Many new design companies and brands are reinterpreting modernist values. We find this uninspiring,” says Hem’s global creative director, Petrus Palmér.
“We are very aware of our place in design history. However, we pride ourselves in not having a particular style,” he adds. “Instead we seek to define how people are living today, and find solutions for those needs.”
For anyone who has ever sweated it out putting together an Ikea chair, Hem’s no-brainer assembly systems are certainly a welcome solution. For instance, the Bento chair, also designed by Form Us With Love, requires a mere four steps and no tools to build -- with legs that attach with a bolt topped by a cross-shaped knob that’s simple enough for a kid or a grandparent to handle.
“We will bring forward products from the sharpest interpreters of these exciting new times,” adds Palmér, who notes that the company’s debut collection includes rugs by American designers Evan Clabots and Anne Lopez. “We imagine a near future where a majority of home furnishings are purchased online, and we plan to be the company that helps usher in that evolution.”