Meet 43 colors of Danish Storage by Montana Furniture

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May 11, 2022

The color is back in the New England soil - flowers are coming out of hiding, aromatics have hit the air, and the gray is in retreat. Dare we say spring? The good creative energy it brings is here, and so is our most colorful brand addition yet: Montana Furniture.

Since 1982, Danish family-owned Montana Furniture has taken storage designs to the next level of personalization, with purposeful, wide-ranging colors being the foundation of their design philosophy. Montana was founded and largely designed by Peter J. Lassen, and is now run by Peter’s son Joakim Lassen, the fifth generation of his family to work with furniture and the great-grandson of Fritz Hansen.

Montana plays off the Danish verb ‘montere’ (meaning assemble) because the late Peter J. Lassen wanted Montana users to be the creators of their pieces: use their imaginations, intertwine function and aesthetics, and gain self-esteem by doing so. Pretty good timing for that spring rebirth, no? So sit back and let us take you through the world of Montana Furniture.

Montana Beginnings

Peter J. Lassen started working in furniture in 1954, joining his wife’s family business (the infamous Fritz Hansen), and went on to be CEO from 1975 to 1979. Lassen collaborated with iconic architects + designers like Arne Jacobsen, Jørn Utzon, Piet Hein, and Verner Panton, that trusted him because he was willing to explore progressive designs and was always curious about the unknown.

Leaving Fritz Hansen in 1979 but taking the rights for a ‘60 x 60’ shelving-unit concept he had developed with him. After a few years of living on severance, he had the time he needed to bring Montana to life. And he took that kinship and respect for artists with him and infused it into Montana’s values like establishing the Montana Literature Prize, funding films about design, and sponsoring the Copenhagen Opera House and exhibitions in the Black Diamond.

“As a sculptor starts with an abstract stone, I started with an abstract square box. I removed all the unnecessary parts of the box so that it eventually featured rounded edges, missing corners, and retracted fronts, Montana's design DNA.” - Peter J. Lassen

A Story in Color + Care

We meant what we said earlier, this is our most colorful brand yet, with a range of 43 eco-friendly water-based colors developed in close collaboration with the award-winning Danish designer and color expert Margrethe Odgaard. Since 2007, Montana has exclusively used water-based lacquer colors, which don't contain any solvents harmful to you or the environment. If you want to take it a step further and create a monochromatic look, Montana has the matching codes for painting in all of their lacquer colors.

Besides meticulous color theory being paramount to the designs, Montana prides itself on being an early adaptor of environmentally-friendly practices and technology. Their entire production process takes place in a small town called Haarby on the Danish island of Funen, with 140 people crafting with the highest care. But they take the impact of their pieces even more seriously, with all Montana pieces carrying the Danish Indoor Climate Label and the EU Ecolabel.

On the micro-level, the Danish Indoor Climate Label is Denmark specific, subjecting products to extensive testing on the release of chemical compounds into indoor air. On the macro, the EU Ecolabel was established in 1992 and is a marker of environmental excellence awarded to companies throughout Europe that meet high sustainability standards: from raw materials to production, distribution, and circular reuse. Montana was one of the first furniture brands in Europe to hold the certification.