Lindau, Borselius & Bernstrand: ABLE Stand

Blå Station presents ABLE Stand, a coat stand designed in 2026 by Johan Lindau, Stefan Borselius and Thomas Bernstrand. It is the newest member of the ABLE family. The three designers set the brief for themselves as a question: how quiet can you scream?

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The idea

The project started from a conviction the three designers shared. In their view, nine out of ten coat stands seem to come from a design process where appearance and uniqueness take centre stage. The aim is often an object that demands attention: a statement piece that insists on being seen. ABLE Stand asks whether that is really what good design is about.

The designers describe a set of contradictions they worked through as they slowly brought the stand into existence. Can a scream dissolve into the surrounding space and still remain present? Can an object feel so natural and so obvious that it simply works, exactly as hoped or even better? Can function be almost invisible, quietly beautiful, and still exceed every expectation?

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Built to carry

ABLE Stand was not designed to hold two or three jackets and a lonely scarf. It can carry fifty or sixty jackets, along with bags, umbrellas, shopping totes and whatever else needs to be put aside for a moment. When there is nothing to carry, the stand does not compete for attention. In the designers’ words, it is meant to be a natural part of the room rather than an object placed within it, as though it had always been there.

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Object or sculpture

The designers expect that some people will use ABLE Stand purely as a sculpture: an expression of structure, of the ABLE design DNA, and of an upward ambition. They welcome that reading. They are equally clear that nobody needs to disapprove if a coat ends up hanging on it. As they put it: “After all, ABLE Stand was made to carry things.”

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The ABLE family

ABLE Stand extends a family that started with the ABLE chair, named Sköna hem’s Furniture of the Year 2024. The chair also won the Innovation Award Architecture + Office at Orgatec 2024 in Cologne and the HiP Award 2025. The family became a table system in 2025, followed by the ABLE Table in 2026. With ABLE Stand, the family moves into a new typology.

About the designers

Johan Lindau is CEO and design manager of Blå Station. Stefan Borselius and Thomas Bernstrand have worked together on a long line of Blå Station designs, including the BOB system. BOB and Bobby earned the pair the Form Award – Designer of the Year in 2020. ABLE is one of their joint projects with Lindau.

By Editorial Team, ScandinavianDesign.com

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