How to find a modernist classic interiors piece for €500 or less

Forget about the faux versions, pick up original designer numbers on a budget, writes Kya deLongchamps

In the age of the late 20th-century knock-off, there’s still a little something-something about knowing you are buying the real thing with the intentional quality and specificity of the original design. 

In Ireland, despite national copyright laws, the reproduction and sale of classic 1950s to 1970s furnishings and accessorising go largely unquestioned, something no longer possible in the UK and much of Europe. I gave up complaining when leery Eames DSW diners turned up on the back of this fast-fashion in my fastfood hamburger palace about five years ago.

For the line, the look, the ghost of the authentic, there are dozens of importers, some making a good effort at robust quality to serve you (DSWs are done to death and start at €55 online). I would question the sustainability of the cheaply made examples, as they will never last as well as exemplary branding. 

Yes, most of the designers attached to these pieces have passed away, but their patenting and licensing have survived. It turns out, most people do not give a flying Corbusier and, frankly, we’re often too insecure to go further and to trust our eye choosing something else.

Let’s take €500 and look at some Scandinavian classics produced by the manufacturers who commissioned the work and made the names of their makers part of our interior safaris, together with some good, budget alternatives for under €250.

First up are two designs from Arne Jacobsen (1902-1971). I found a deal for a Series 7 chair by Jacobsen for the brand Fritz Hansen, on offer for €440 in black leather with a chrome cradle support and a gorgeous free lambswool thrown in to dress it up. 

Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs; from €440 with free lambswool throw, ambientedirect.com.

Series 7 chairs demand nine layers of pressure moulded veneer for strength, flexibility and durability. According to the house of Fritz Hansen, the Series 7 remains their most popular chair collection. 

This spidery lovely has a dyed ash frame that is perfect for a bedroom chair or a single occasional. ambientedirect.com 

EZ-Living always surprises, and for €49 you can pick up a well-made, calming Dusty Green Whitby dining chair (with that timeless shell form) for just €49, ezlivingfurniture.ie.

Jacobsen was part of the era of total design, where every sofa and skirting board fell under the architect’s eye. For a very special wedding gift or housewarming, check out the cutlery set by another Danish house of mid-century design and collaboration, Georg Jensen. 

Cutlery originally designed for the SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen by Arne Jacobsen, still produced by Georg Jensen, from €239, nordicnest.com.

These utensils were created specially for the iconic SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen in 1957. It’s delightfully functional and could sit in the hand of an aristocrat ploughing across to New York on an ocean liner, or in the quarters of the Starship Enterprise. 

The cutlery set includes dinner forks, dinner knives, dinner spoons and small teaspoons and is available in 4, 16 or 24 pieces. From €239, nordicnest.com.

As wood themes warm up our homes for autumn/winter 2023, pick up a set of quality S/S and maple cutlery by Emako. We love the eye-catching round bowls to the spoons. Give the handles the occasional rub with beeswax to preserve their grain and patina; 16 pieces, €135, laredoute.com.

Hay of Copenhagen is synonymous with metal tray tables, and you can see the imitations of their work from the early 2000s in every high-street furniture hangar. Bar and pipe steel has remained extremely popular since it re-emerged from the louche lounges of the 1970s, and there are now new colours and finishes in powder coatings to suit a range of situations.

Hay tray tables, from €209, various suppliers.

The light, airy Hay side table is a minimalistic choice with a high edge to protect things from slipping away, neatly understated as a bedside or coffee table. The 60cm x 60cm x 39cm is very present in its gloss Chocolate (red); prices from €209, various suppliers.

Look out for deals on Stay Coffee Tables from Norman Copenhagen, an organic lick of gentle industrial stainless steel in lacquered steel with two inset shelves. The Rust, with its feminine curves, delivers the heritage warmth of polished copper; from €250-€280 depending on supplier.

Verner Panton (1926-1998) designed the Panthella table lamp in 1971 for Louis Poulsen, and it was originally sold with a white foot and an opal glass diffuser. There was something of a hysteria in industrial design in the 60s with the idea of simplicity.

Stark white was everywhere by the late 1960s. This revolutionary hemisphere with its Sputnik strangeness would most likely be in Roger Sterling’s edgy office (Mad Men/HBO). Rather than grabbing a fake, try going smaller (classics are often scaled down for a wider audience and a dinkier environment). 

Verner Panton designed the Panthella table lamp in 1971 for Louis Poulsen. Prices range from €276 for a portable model.

The Panthella 250, at 22.5cm high, features a Bauhaus, spun steel shade, something Panton had asked for in his original. Remarkably chic in all black; from €420. There’s an even smaller Panthella 160 V2, a portable model, ideal for drinks on a balcony, powered by replaceable batteries with a USB cable. Check it out in Opal Grey and Chrome, €276, finnishdesignshop.com.

Pendants swung low over side tables and dining spots suspend interest in a room full of low, horizontal happenings. For a ridiculously low spend, pick up a set of three Lindby Marla smoked-glass pendants in one unit with elongated, bulbous shades on a black cord. I’m obsessed; €196.90, lights.ie.

Anna Castelli Ferrieri's Componobili for Kartell c.1967. Prices from €70.50 for a single drawer, multiple suppliers.

Small storage doesn’t come better than a bit of Italian sophistication in solid and coated plastics by Kartell. Anna Castelli Ferrieri’s Componobili, with between one and four drawers, was launched in 1967, and featured at Italy’s Museum of Modern Art. 

The fun cylindrical form has been given a fresh new look in gold, blue, green, or lavender, but it remains an instantly recognisable original from the age that first celebrated plastic furnishings. You can choose ABS plastic in gloss or matt, and attach small wheels to push it around; from €70.50, multiple suppliers. 

The Hollywood Regency’s love of clear Lucite has never dimmed. Philippe Starck’s Ghost Buster bedside tables, made in co-operation with Eugeni Quitllet, are “boldly translucent”; €316 ambientedirect.com.

Coat racks and hooks have always fascinated domestic designers. 

Charles and Ray Eames dreamed up the ‘Hang it all’ coat rack for kids in 1953. It features 14 wooden balls, and several coat racks can be terraced together to form a larger, distinctive rack that looks great dressed or undressed. Available with painted or raw wood balls, from €315, various suppliers; manufactured in Europe by Vitra.

For a smaller spend, Angelo in a steel frame and ash laminate, gives you a mirror, a free-standing rack for coats, a cubby for shoes and a place to put your bag and keys, all in a leggy bit of abstract sculpture. €390, kavehome.com. 

The Georg hanger was designed in 2013 by Christina Liljenberg Halstrom for Skagerak. Intended as a meeting of Nordic sensuality and Japanese minimalism. From €59, suppliers include the outlet byflou.com.

My money is on the bare wood beauty of the Georg hanger designed in 2013 by Christina Liljenberg Halstrom for Skagerak. Intended as the meeting of “Nordic sensuality and Japanese minimalism”, two bent pieces of FSC-certified oak are connected to each other by a leather thong wound over a supporting “branch” screwed into the wall, and capable of carrying two heavy winter coats. From €59. 

Explore the rest of the Georg collection to tailor an organic hall suite. For deals on Skagerak and other new and old Scandi classics, try byflou.com.