DesignerNorwegian
Torill Slettvoll
0 active items
Few furniture designers have grown up quite as literally inside their craft as Torill Slettvoll. The daughter of Hans and Bergit Slettvoll, who founded their furniture business in a basement in Stranda on Norway's Sunnmøre coast in 1951, she spent her childhood in the workshop, learning to use scissors, sewing machines, hammers, and pliers before most children had finished primary school. The company had become Scandinavia's leading manufacturer of manila furniture by the 1970s, and when Torill joined in the 1980s she was inheriting both a craft tradition and a business at a crossroads.
Taking over from her parents as head of the company, she made a series of decisions that would transform a regional manufacturer into an internationally oriented brand. The first Slettvoll retail store opened in a converted barn at Kolsås in Bærum in 1999, quickly proving the concept. A year later the Oslo flagship at Skøyen opened - still the largest store in the network. The retail expansion that followed brought the brand to fourteen stores across Norway, three in Sweden, and one in Denmark, with Torill steering the company through a period when Norwegian furniture manufacturing faced significant competition from low-cost imports.
What distinguishes her approach is the combination of commercial ambition with a genuine commitment to craft production. Every Slettvoll piece is made to order by craftsmen in Stranda, a model that resists the economies of scale typical of mass-market furniture but ensures quality control at each stage. The design language she developed works within this constraint: clean Scandinavian lines, careful proportion, seam detailing that can withstand scrutiny up close, and an emphasis on comfort that takes seriously the way upholstered furniture is actually used over years.
As a designer, she is credited with several pieces in the Slettvoll collection. The Piet armchair balances straight structural lines with organic curves and a precise seam vocabulary, producing a chair that works as a standalone statement piece or within a larger composition. The East armchair was developed around seating comfort as a primary criterion. The Sussex sofa - also modular in its later form - follows a similar philosophy: a slim silhouette with soft lines and reversible cushions that adapt to different arrangements over time.
Under her leadership, Slettvoll received the Business of the Year award in Møre og Romsdal in 2015, and in 2021 was named Export Company of the Year by Norsk Industri Designindustri. Her daughter Live and son-in-law Bjørn-Helge have since joined the business, carrying the third generation into the brand's ongoing development.
On Auctionist, Torill Slettvoll's 20 tracked lots consist almost entirely of upholstered seating, reflecting the core of her design output. The pieces have sold primarily through Bukowskis Stockholm (14 lots) and Metropol (6 lots), suggesting a secondary market concentrated in Sweden. Prices have been modest - the top recorded sale was 600 SEK for a sofa - which is typical for contemporary designer furniture at auction, where pre-owned pieces sell at a fraction of retail. The consistent presence at auction indicates that her designs circulate actively in the Nordic secondhand market, a practical indicator of how widely distributed the Slettvoll brand has become.