DURATION
9 weeks
RESPONSIBILITIES
Ideation, concept research, rapid prototyping, woodworking
PROJECT TYPE
Furniture Design
TEAM
Solo
An embodiment of warmth, light, and casual coziness amidst darkness.
Background
Picture this…
Imagine a cold, rainy day. The fire crackles in the living room fireplace, warming the soles of your feet as you recline in a cushiony armchair, nestled in a warm knit blanket. Raindrops tap lightly on the window pane and the scent of fresh pine permeates the space. All the lights are dimmed except for a few candles and the fire, radiating warmth and light. You hold a warm cup of coffee in your hands and you are completely relaxed and at peace.
Or perhaps imagine a night outside on the porch. You are surrounded by friends, good food and laughter. It is pitch black outside, but the fire is roaring and everyone is huddled around it. While it is cold in the night, you are filled with a warm tingling and contentedness. For me, both of these scenarios elicit a feeling of hygge.
Hygge is a Danish word that describes a feeling of warmth, coziness and comfort that is needed during the cold winter months in Scandinavia, but can manifest in many forms. Danes experience winter and darkness from October to March, so they compensate by creating light and a sense of warmth and coziness during those long cold months.
The elements of hygge.
The coffee table was inspired by three main elements of hygge — light, rawness, and togetherness.
Light is an incredibly important aspect of hygge. According to Meik Weiking, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, the ideal temperature of light is around 1800 Kelvin. If you’re not sure what 1800K looks like, think of the golden hour — the hour right before sunrise and the hour right before sunset — the hygge sweet spot. Throughout time, Danes have experimented with achieving this quality of light through lamps and candles. I experimented with dyeing epoxy resin an amber color to achieve the hygge glow.
Scandinavians also place great importance on togetherness and intimacy as a part of hygge, which is why I chose to build a coffee table — to create a centerpiece around which friends and family can gather to have a hyggelig time.
Process
Visited a local lumber shop to find a piece of wood that embodied the cozy, raw & rustic nature of hygge while staying within the budget. Chose a flat slab of mahogany and used a CNC router to make cut outs inspired by the De Stijl* era and Danish painter, Richard Mortensen, who was known for his abstract, geometric style.
*the De Stijl era was a Dutch art movement based in abstraction and simplified visual compositions of vertical and horizontal geometries.
The coffee table is a combination of the hygge elements mentioned above. Using a CNC router, I cut out geometrical shapes reminiscent of the De Stijl* era, to achieve a sharpness and rigidity that I hoped would counter the 1800K glow that would be emitted by sunlight passing through the amber epoxy resin that filled the geometric cut outs. I chose a dark mahogany wood to also emphasize the contrast between the bright light.
I didn’t want to use artificial light to produce the glow and therefore attempted to produce a amber-colored epoxy resin such that when sunlight passed through it, it would cast a warm glow on the floor.
The table is also low set, such that friends and family can gather around it on the floor and share food and drink in a cozy environment.
The mahogany has little surface modification— I wanted to preserve the rawness of the material and only used a mahogany wood stain and polyurethane coat to protect the surface from scratches and stains. Much of the tangible aspects of hygge are centered around bringing in natural materials from the outdoors — wood, plants, animal furs.
Mixed hardener, resin and dye to form amber color in order to achieve the 1800K hygge “glow” when interacting with sunlight.
Mood Board - a juxtaposition of cold & warm; dark & light.
Challenges
Initially I used the wood from the CNC cut-outs as the table legs as a nod to the De Stijl era (shown in process photos). However, the table legs were not stable when adhered with wood glue and I swapped them out for metal hairpin legs.
If I were to redo this table in the future without any time constraints, I would have use a mortise and tenon joint for a stronger and more simplistic finish without any wood glue or metal fasteners. This would have allowed me to use the wooden legs in the orientation that I had originally planned.
Additionally, I would have used a heat torch if I had access to one to prevent bubbles from forming during the process of hardening the epoxy resin.
Outcomes
When set underneath sunlight, the amber colored epoxy resin does cast a warm glow underneath the table, which is especially striking in the cold winter months, embodying the hygge spirit. It has been the centerpiece for many cozy dinners and conversations by the fireplace. The epoxy resin cut-outs also act as perfect built-in coasters!