Welcome to the year’s first reading list of Design Stories, the online magazine of Finnish Design Shop. Why not kick off 2022 by taking an armchair tour in Connie Barton’s lovely London home, discovering the anniversary colours of Iittala’s iconic Teema collection, marvelling designer Richard Sapper’s lifework and innovations, getting inspired by our showroom favourites, and reading the latest column of Hanna-Katariina Mononen, who confesses to being colour-shy.

Graphic designer Connie Barton lives in a unique home with a magical, jungle-like garden in South London. She and her husband bought the home after seeing it just once – in the dark – after Connie immediately fell in love with the lush backyard.

This year, Kaj Franck’s Teema tableware collection will reach the respectable age of 70. To celebrate the occasion, Iittala will launch the classic tableware in new colours inspired by the original tableware from 1952.

Every month, Finnish Design Shop’s Showroom Manager Maija Rasila and her team pick the showroom's most interesting trends and products. In January, the focus is on the Pantone Colour of the Year 2022 and materials that freshen up the interior.

The career of German-Italian designer Richard Sapper was driven by his boundless interest in technology. Sapper, one of the key industrial designers of the last century, created innovations including the Tizio lamp for Artemide, the 9091 kettle for Alessi, and the ThinkPad laptops for Lenovo.

Hanna-Katariina Mononen, who keeps the colour scheme of her home neutral, admires the skillful use of strong colours – but only from a distance.