If you hear the word “pine” and experience a not-insignificant shudder down your spine, then chances are you had a cheap, orange-tinged chest of drawers or otherwise in your ’90s childhood bedroom. But while pine—a softwood defined by its brown knots, smooth exterior and relatively straight grain—was once an interior faux pas, it’s now enjoying a renaissance.
Whether clad wall-to-wall in more daring spaces, or simply deployed in chunky table and chair form, Google searches around the affordable wood have peaked at over 5,000% globally in the last month alone. Meanwhile, at second-hand furniture site, Vinterior, sales of pine furniture—including Swedish mid-century designs and Victorian larder cupboards—jumped by 500%, with sales holding steady into 2025. Anecdotally, Instagram is full of people showcasing their pine buys, with Rainer Daumiller’s knotty round table and chairs a particular favorite. And British furniture designer Faye Toogood recently harnessed Finnish pine when creating her Peace Outdoor Lounge Chair in collaboration with Vaarnii.
“There has been a noticeable shift back towards using beautifully traditional pine in recent years—the kind you find in Victorian houses,” says interior designer Hollie Bowden. “I particularly love the work of the Swedish architect and designer Axel Einar Hjorth, whose Utö Chair is a favourite.” A cult classic that was only produced until 1938, prices for the Utö chair now fetch up to $6,400 for a single chair, thanks to its versatility and simple yet rustic and robust form. Designers, including Rose Uniacke and Pierre Yovanovitch, have them in their own homes, such is their appeal.
Interior designer Beata Heuman puts “pine-o-mania” down to Hjorth’s influence: “To the absolute stunned amazement of my [Swedish] parents, Axel-Einar Hjorth’s early 20th-century furniture has made a huge comeback, and I think his work has greatly contributed to the pine resurgence,” she says. “Those chunky pine pieces are perhaps not ‘beautiful’ but they are certainly cool, adding tension to a scheme by virtue of looking somewhat odd. There is an abundance of pine in Sweden, so this look is particularly prevalent and feels a little less sexy since it’s so commonplace.” For Heuman, the Utö works best as a one-off statement: “Artful in isolation, it feels tongue in cheek because of its naïve simplicity,” she adds.
For antiques dealer Chloe McDonald, founder of Scene by Chloe, our newfound love of pine may well have come in part due to an exhaustion with a mid-century favourite: teak. She has been buying pine for a few years now. “People needed new wood in their lives,” she says. “There are some great designers who worked with it in the 1970s, often making really sculptural furniture that played with shape and proportion. Swedish pine armchairs and chunky dining sets have gone down really well with my customers, plus I’ve noticed many of my counterparts selling floor lamps by Swedish designer Solbackens Svarver.”
Roman Alonso, founder of Commune, the design studio known for its work with myriad different woods, utilizes pine for both paneling and millwork, including door and window frames, cabinetry and trim. “We love it for its tone, grain, and even its knottiness,” he says. “It gets overlooked because people think of it as perhaps too rustic, but when it’s beautifully detailed, it can be quite elevated. Look at all those incredible pine-paneled interiors by [the furniture designer] Frances Elkins.”
An accessible and affordable way to add a natural feel into your abode, it’s also more sustainable than many other materials. Pine grows relatively quickly and is often sourced responsibly, explains Sophie Rowell, founder of interior design studio Cote de Folk, who also loves its practicality, character and warmth. It’s inviting, she says. How does she take her pine? “The knottier, the better, in my opinion, because that makes it unique,” she explains. “As it ages, pine develops a mellow patina that adds to its timeless appeal.” She’s used it for wide plank flooring, tongue-and-groove cladding for walls and ceilings, and for pieces of furniture in her projects—and she’s certainly not finished with it yet.
How to make it work now? Here are six key things to note.
Check out the originals
Take a look at how pine was used way back when for inspiration on how to use it in your home now. As well as Hjorth and Elkins, the work of Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Chapo and Luis Barragán are all great names to Google for ideas.
Try different treatments
Not only are there different types of pine one can consider (including sugar pine and white western—two of Alonso’s favorites), but there are also different treatments you can try to create different finishes. “We like natural finishes with products like Osmo [a wax] or Rubio Oil Monocoat, but we’ve also put bar finish and marine grade polyurethane on it when we want a super high gloss,” says Alonso. “For example, at the Ace Hotel in Chicago, we took construction-grade pine plywood, stained it with watered-down paint, then lined the entire walls throughout—it was beautiful.”
Make it slightly unexpected
Pine works particularly well when used a little differently. Interior designer Christian Bense—who says there is a humility to pine that people seem to love—sourced a faux bamboo wardrobe that was actually made of pine for his previous apartment, and has since used the same eclectic effect in other projects. It works a treat. Meanwhile, Heuman utilized it in a North London project, juxtaposing an earthy pine kitchen island and visible dovetail joinery, with a more subdued and streamlined interior.
Walk on it
Welcoming and warm, but with a soft, clean feel, pine flooring is durable but not as expensive as hardwoods like oak, making it a great option for floorboards. Bowden employed locally sourced pine wood in a project on the Isle of Bute in Scotland, blending “traditional and contemporary design sensibilities while remaining grounded in the character of the surrounding area.” Interiors influencer Lucy Williams also has reclaimed pine on her ground floor, and Heuman’s 18th-century Swedish home features a pine staircase. “It would have been added in the 1960s—a tad eccentric and out of place, but I kind of love it for that reason.”
Go chunky
“The furniture designer Gustaf Westman loves a really chunky aesthetic that has been huge on Instagram,” says McDonald, noting that Rainer Daumiller’s cult chair and tables offer the same aesthetic. “The whopping proportions feel fresh and elevated, which is why I think these pieces are so in demand.”
Cladding might be too daring
But it can work, if you treat it right. “I would say be careful and hire a professional to help you find the best way to work it into your interior,” cautions Alonso. “It can offer a beautiful finish, but it can also look like a ’70s rec room if it’s not detailed and finished in the right way.”
