DesignerSwedish
Ulf Scherlin
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Ulf Scherlin arrived at furniture design through an unlikely route. He spent a decade working in law and finance, from 1979 to 1989, before design began to pull harder than the office. His entry point was specific and personal: a hall bench he could not find in the shops and decided to design himself. The sketch was sent to a workshop in Småland, a region in southern Sweden long associated with precision woodworking and manufacturing, and the bench went into production. That single piece set the direction for everything that followed.
In 1994 Scherlin founded Scherlin Form, based in Stockholm. Without formal design training, he built his practice around what he calls clear principles: form and function as primary guides, natural materials handled honestly, and production kept close to home. The studio designs all pieces in Stockholm and manufactures them in Småland, keeping the supply chain short and the quality relationship direct. The collection has grown steadily over three decades to include benches, cabinets, mirrors, dining tables, coffee tables, side tables, and console pieces.
The tables are the work Scherlin Form is most recognized for at auction. The studio's signature approach pairs stone tops - most commonly white Carrara marble - with bases in blackened steel, brass, or zinc. The proportions are restrained: low profiles, clean intersections, no decorative detailing beyond what the material itself provides. The coffee table models, particularly Soffbord 11 and Soffbord 12, have become the most traded pieces. The Soffbord 12 features a marble top on a blackened metal frame; the Soffbord 11 is available in both marble and other stone finishes. Both sit within the broader Scandinavian tradition of combining industrial materials with natural ones, though the execution is distinctly low-key rather than showy.
Scherlin Form retails through design stores including Svenssons and NordicNest, and the brand has picked up distribution across northern Europe. In 2024 Marc joined the studio as Design Director, releasing an initial collection under the Scherlin Form name. The studio continues to position itself around durability and material integrity rather than trend cycles.
On Auctionist, 30 items are recorded under Ulf Scherlin's name, concentrated almost entirely in tables and storage furniture. The top sales cluster around the marble coffee table models: Soffbord 12 has achieved 8,500 SEK, 7,000 SEK, and further results in the same range, while Soffbord 11 reached 7,900 SEK and 6,900 SEK. Stockholms Auktionsverk Magasin 5 accounts for the majority of recorded sales, followed by Bukowskis Stockholm and Auktionshuset Kolonn, indicating consistent market presence within the Swedish secondary market.