Architect and furniture designer, Bruno Mathsson, is celebrated for his chairs and well insulated houses. His designs are extremely practical, versatile and beautiful. Mr. Mathsson's acclaimed home furnishing credits also include computer desks, daybeds and tables. An example embodying his fine taste for design is the Mathsson Fällbord table which incorporates and exemplifies beauty, elegance, versatility and practicality.

For five generations the Mathsson family had earned a living working with wood, so it comes as no surprise that a young Mattsson would follow in his family's footsteps. As a young boy most of his chores were centered in the furniture and woodworking shop of his family. He grew up around tools, wood and the techniques of furniture building and woodworking.

Mathsson talked with experts and sent away for books in order to learn the technical and engineering skills that were missing in his small town of Varnamo. By doing so he not only mastered the skills he needed, he also formed a network of mentors to assisted him later on. He earned awards for furniture (möbler) design and these partially helped support his formal education.

While he produced many different furniture (annorlunda möbler) types, comfort and beauty were common themes for each type. What's more, he designed his pieces with innovation in mind; he recognized that people value flexibility in furniture arrangement (inredning). The modular style of his pieces enhanced their popularity due to the ease in which the pieces could be used to create unique spaces and moods.

The Mathsson Fällbord table is an extremely handy piece of furniture. The word "fällbord" means "folding table" in Swedish, but the Mathsson is much more than that. First manufactured in 1935, its supporting trestles were originally made of birch. The table top had either a white laminate surface, or it came in different wood finishes, such as oak, beech, cherry, or ash.

The Mathsson table folds into a tiny 23 cm bundle when completely collapsed and expands into a table 280 cm long when fully extended. It can be arranged with a dropped leaf at one or both ends and could serve as a tiny writing table in a coffee nook or expand into a banquet table with nearly every size in between possible. For those not accustomed to metric measurements, that is a range of a bit over 9 inches to about 110 1/4 inches.

During the 1960's Mathsson utilized modern materials such as metal tubing and synthetics in the furniture he constructed. While these later works were impressive, Mathsson is probably best known for his earlier creations such as the elegant Fällbord which allows for flexibility in crowded areas. While the Fällbord is believed to be based on folding tables that were once found in Swedish country homes, Mathsson transformed the traditional design into something unique and all his own.

Go to http://www.contentspooling.net/public.php?id=164&a=2573 in order to get a unique version of this article for your website.

Bruno Mathsson was not only an architect of beautiful houses, he was also a creator of elegant, yet practical, fine furniture. Growing up in a family with a long, proud, multi-generational legacy of furniture making, he learned about all aspects of furniture making, which shows in the quality of his different furniture styles. For example, the fällbord table would be an excellent addition to anyone's home furnishing (inredning). It can fold and expand for maximum flexibility depending on its desired use and available space constraints. His furniture (möbler) is available in a variety of materials also.