Skagerak Buyer's Guide

For over forty years, Danish furniture brand Skagerak has provided customers with top-quality furniture with a distinctly Scandinavian feel. 

The Skagerak range includes furniture for indoors and outdoors, as well as lighting and other accessories. Some of the brand’s original designs are still produced and have come to be seen as design classics, while new designs that follow the brand’s principles and tradition are continually released.

With hundreds of distinct and high-quality furniture products in the Skagerak range to choose from, deciding which products are right for your living space can be difficult. This is where we step in—we have created this buyers’ guide to talk you through everything you need to know when buying a Skagerak product.

We will explore the history of the brand, its style and craftsmanship, the different categories of products available, and how Skagerak furniture can be paired with other products.

About Skagerak

Skagerak was founded in 1976 by couple Vibeke and Jesper Panduro, in the city of Aalborg in their native Denmark. The family-owned nature of the brand is reflected in its furniture designs, with the priority being to create homely living spaces. 

The brand’s Danish heritage is also extremely important to its story. Each product is inspired by the Scandinavian design school, which prizes functionality, creative craftsmanship, and build quality. Skagerak furniture is built to last for many years and to be passed down through generations.

The name “Skagerak” comes from the strait of Skagerrak (with two “r”s) that borders Denmark and Norway, and is not only an area of outstanding natural beauty but also plays a vital role in trade in the region. With the brand’s commitment to aesthetic beauty and to practical convenience, this name certainly reflects these values!

Skagerak is also committed to sustainability, and its many partnerships with skilled designers and suppliers reflect this commitment. 

Scandinavian Style

Skagerak’s products follow the designing principles of the Scandinavian Modern design tradition, which emerged in the mid-20th Century. At the time, traditional furniture design (which now seems ornate and highly decorative compared to what succeeded it) was being replaced in popularity by the “Mid-Century Modern” style, which rejected “unnecessary” ornamentations in favor of sleek, functional minimalism.

The Mid-Century Modern style brought in furniture that prized functionality above all else. Lines, edges, and surfaces were smooth and sleek, and a greater range of materials available enabled furniture to be produced in colors not necessarily found in nature.

Almost instantly after Mid-Century Modern took the design world by storm, the Scandinavian Modern style emerged as something of a subcategory of this style. While Scandinavian Modern embraced functionality and minimalism, it retained the natural materials and handcrafted nature of traditional design.

This blend of modern functionality with homely, cozy aesthetics made the Scandinavian style one of the most popular in the world, and it remains so to this day. The Skagerak brand is a proud ambassador of the Scandinavian style, and offers hundreds of furniture products and accessories designed to be both functional and charming.

Committed to Quality Craftsmanship

Skagerak furniture is designed by artisan furniture designers and produced using only the highest-quality materials. In addition to this, and in keeping with the natural inspirations of its name, the company makes sure to use environmentally-friendly production practices. 

In the words of CEO Jesper Panduro: “we create furniture that is built to be used and survive in the long run, so they patinate and accumulate stories”. Skagerak pieces are not simply mass-produced, disposable products—they are built to last many years.

The brand makes sure that all wood used is sourced responsibly as well as being of the highest quality. The oak used is sourced from European forests and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the teak is from sustainable producers in Central America and Indonesia.

Skagerak is committed to honesty and transparency, and that is why they have created an interactive world map on their website that details the origins of all materials used by the brand. If you want to know the exact origins of your order, you’re in luck.

Skagerak Product Categories

There are three broad categories of Skagerak products; indoor furniture, outdoor furniture, and home accessories. 

• Indoor Furniture: Skagerak’s range of indoor furniture includes sofas, dining tables and chairs, cabinets, stools, wardrobes, and many more. Skagerak’s wooden indoor furniture is mostly constructed from natural oak wood.

• Outdoor Furniture: Skagerak’s range of outdoor furniture includes benches, tables, outdoor sofas, parasols, firebowls, and more. Skagerak’s wooden indoor furniture is mostly constructed from natural teak wood.

• Home Accessories: Skagerak offers a wide range of home accessories for every room, including bowls, cutting boards, cushions, pillows, racks, spoons, vases, trays, and more.

Teak Outdoor Furniture

The majority of Skagerak’s outdoor furniture products are made from natural teak wood. The brand chose this material for good reasons—teak is highly sought-after not only for its attractive aesthetic but also for its durability.

The teak used to build Skagerak’s furniture is sourced from Indonesia (where a new teak tree is planted for each one felled) and Central America.

In comparison to other common outdoor furniture materials such as oak and pine, teak is particularly suited to outdoor furniture due to its inherent qualities. Because teak trees tend to grow in humid climates, the wood is naturally more resistant to moisture than other types of wood. The natural oils and rubber found in teak grain protect it from the elements as well as from dry rot.

As teak ages, the wood turns from a brownish color to a more silvery gray-ish tone. Many homeowners particularly appreciate this aesthetic.

Brands that Work Well Alongside Skagerak

Skagerak furniture can be particularly attractive when placed alongside products from other Danish brands that follow the Scandinavian Modern design tradition. At House and Hold, we stock products from the following Scandinavian brands:

• Louis Poulsen: Louis Poulsen is a highly-renowned manufacturer of lighting. With many design classics to their name, this brand is the perfect counterpart to Skagerak furniture.

• Ferm Living: Furniture, lighting, and decor are all available from Ferm Living, another brand that uses Scandinavian design to bring comfort and meaning to living spaces.

• Menu: Like Ferm Living, Menu is committed to making living spaces more enjoyable to be in, and follows the Scandinavian philosophy of creative, functional minimalism.

Combining Beauty with Function and Resilience

Skagerak’s expert designers know how to create designs that last, both in terms of durability and appeal. With only the highest-quality sustainable materials used, Skagerak pieces are designed to last for many years, and become familiar fixtures of family life. 

With a five-year guarantee on any and all products, you can benefit from peace of mind that you have made a smart purchase. The company also offers expert advice on how best to care for and maintain any products purchased, so you can be sure that they will keep their charm and functionality for a long time. 

Skagerak products can bring some of the beauty of the Scandinavian natural landscape, and the ingenuity, expertise and attention to detail of the region’s world-renowned designers, into your home—wherever you live. 

At House and Hold, we're authorized retailers of the full line of Skagerak furniture and home accessories.