Welcome back, wicker

NEXT time you walk into a furniture shop, don’t be surprised to see masses of chairs with woven wicker seats and wardrobes with rattan doors. It’s a major new furniture trend, albeit a familiar one.

Viennese wickerwork had its heyday long ago, but the classic woven designs, familiar from old cafe chairs, are back in a big way – precisely because they’re so familiar.

Trend analyst Gabriela Kaiser says Viennese wickerwork is a classic “and many people long for it, to be more precise, for traditional values. The Viennese weave radiates a certain value”.

Furniture trend expert Ursula Geismann sees the benefit of this kind of furniture in that it’s “familiar, like a good friend”.

We’re not just talking about those old outdoor armchairs made entirely of wicker. The real charm is with wooden chairs with wicker seats.

The best-known chair of this kind is Michael Thonet’s 214 chair, designed way back in 1859. Found in cafes all over Europe, there were 50 million of them sold before 1930 – and that’s not including the many knockoffs.

The reasons for this are more topical than ever today. The value comes from its simplicity: The chair, like much other furniture with

wickerwork, matches any conceivable style, Geismann says.

For furniture that’s used to store things like a chest of drawers, the slight transparency of the wicker allows you to get an idea of its contents from a cupboard without revealing it.

Designer Mathieu Gustafsson used Viennese wickerwork for his AIR collection for Design House

Stockholm like “a filter or a veil” in order to bring a little optical lightness to a larger surface.

The design duo Thau & Kallio also plays with the lightness of braided elements. The Betty TK1 chair is lighter and stacks better than if it had solid wood panels, designer Sami Kallio says. That makes transport costs lower than for some other furniture. The Viennese weave is also sustainable in another way: Wickerwork is usually done with natural, rapidly renewable materials such as rattan, reed or bamboo.

Thonet’s original coffee house chair 214 has now been revised by Studio Besau Marguerre for an anniversary edition that is available in black, white, velvet red and sage.

— Photos: dpa (Right) On chests of drawers, the Viennese weave looks like a veil that allows one to sense the contents without completely revealing them. This is another creation by Gustafsson from the AIR collection.

(Left) The Viennese wickerwork makes furniture appear lighter. Designer Gustafsson used it instead of solid doors on the sideboard of the AIR collection for Design House Stockholm.

(Centre) Fabric braids are also being used to decorate new furniture. Here, the Betty TK1 chair has a linen seat.