Scan Magazine | Design Feature | Design Classique
investment, and having samples delivered to their door enables clients to try out lifelasting furniture or even entire room furnishings before committing to them. Clients come from all over Denmark and Germany, as well as from further afield – Design Classique just worked with the Danish Consulate in Dubai to refurbish their Illum Wikkelsøe chairs. New customers are often attracted by word of mouth, and Design Classique has plenty of returning clients, some of whom they have worked with for years.
Top: Design Classique returned these Børge Mogensen chairs to their former elegance for Viborg Town Hall.
Above: Restoring Hans J. Wegner classics such as this is a speciality of Design Classique’s.
First-class treatment for second-hand furniture
At the end of the conversation, Design Classique’s regard for both their trade and their customers inadvertently shines through. Wollesen talks excitedly about a recent customer whose 100-year-old chairs needed to be restored. “The chairs had little monetary or architectural value, but they were important to the customer. They had high nostalgic value, and that’s just as important, as long as the customer’s happy.”
“It’s the marriage between good design and quality craftsmanship,” says Tonny W. Wollesen thoughtfully when asked what interests him about his trade, selling and restoring classic Danish furniture. “Furniture is something physical, something artful – something you can really get excited about.” By Louise Older Steffensen | Photos: Wollesen
While working full-time in pensions consultancy in 2004, Wollesen founded the webshop Design Classique, spending his spare hours making a viable company out of his life-long passion. Success soon allowed him to take over the longestablished furniture dealer Stolen from a friend who was retiring. In a manner archetypal of the stoic Danish region of Jutland, however, Wollesen is averse to speaking about himself and his achievements, preferring instead to tell us all about his main interest: classic Danish furniture. Wollesen is particularly excited about the company’s large new shop in Rødding, mid-South Jutland – mainly because its location places it squarely between museums celebrating the centenaries of his two favourite designers: the
Børge Mogensen exhibition at Trap Holt Museum in Kolding, and Hans J. Wegner’s birthplace in Tønder. When restoring pieces, the company works closely with hand-picked specialists, and they are specialists in delivering original upholstery and spares, having worked with Getama furniture for over 20 years. “Our aim,” says Wollesen, “is always to restore the piece of furniture to the designer’s original specifications. It should be taken back to its origins, and seen as it was intended.” The company drives around Denmark and Germany in ‘møbelbusser’ (furniture buses) providing clients with straight-up samples of furniture, materials, and more. The company recognises that quality furniture is a big
Design Classique works closely with highly-skilled furniture restorers to bring back every last detail of Danish classics such as this original Arne Jacobsen chair, Ægget (the Egg chair).
A detailed webshop and the new spacious showroom allow Design Classique to bring together all of their products for the first time.
For more information, please visit: www.designclassique.dk
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