This stunning furniture line brings the great outdoors inside

Advertisement

hr_nova_c11

Green Furniture Concept

Christmas trees are nice, but they only last a few weeks out of the year.

Advertisement

Green Furniture Concept, on the other hand - with its naturalistic design and modular, snakelike arrangement - lets people have a never-ending relationship with the great outdoors.

gf1

Green Furniture Concept

Every piece of furniture is made of environmentally friendly materials, from the recycled plastic and steel of the Nova benches to the wool used in the leaf lamp trees to the finishing made of vegetable wax.

The latter detail gives the furniture a delicious "new-bench smell, " according to Sandra Afeyan, the company's director of sales and marketing.

gf4

Green Furniture Concept

Advertisement

While the concept began with a chair built from a single piece of wood back in 2007, by Swedish designer Johan Berhin, it wasn't until earlier this year in Chicago that the European company made its North American debut.

The unveiling took place at this year's NeoCon design conference, where Green Furniture Concept won the silver medal in the Best of NeoCon bench division.

gf2

Green Furniture Concept

Nova benches in use at Sweden's Gothenburg Landvetter Airport.

Despite the line's appearance in university cafeterias, libraries, airports, shopping malls, and other public spaces, Afeyan says, "no one knew who we were."

Whenever people catch a glimpse of the furniture, the reaction is fairly typical: a reflexive mix of confusion and awe.

"And we do different colors but no one wants different colors," Afeyan tells Tech Insider. "We do orange and green and blue and yellow, but people want to stick to this beautiful natural look."

Advertisement

If the benches aren't eye-catching, the trees certainly are.

gf3

Green Furniture Concept

Available in three sizes, each leaf lamp tree is made by tying together bushels of wool "leaves" that help trap nearby sounds, Afeyan says.

The dampened acoustics help serve larger quiet spaces, like university libraries, which can easily give off cold vibes to people staying there for extend periods of time.

"The other really neat feature about wool is that it's anti-static," she says. "So cleaning this thing is really easy."

hr_leaf_lamp_tree_12

Green Furniture Concept

As for the future of Green Furniture Concept, Afeyan says the greatest focus is on designing integrated accessories for the bench series.

Advertisement

The company just introduced wireless charging capabilities at the end of each bench and has plans to include built-in garbage cans and flower planters, "so it's more of a system for public spaces."

Even Mother Nature has to adapt to the demands of modern technology.

NOW WATCH: An artist has completely re-envisioned the most mundane piece of furniture