Lena Larsson

Lena Larsson, (née Rabenius; 31 July 1919 – 4 April 2000), was a Swedish interior designer, known as a pioneer for the unconventional, family-friendly environments she created, and for the 1960s modern wear-and-tear ideal. She was married in 1940 to architect Mårten Larsson and they had four children. She was a member of the Rabenius family belonging to the Swedish nobility. After that she worked for cabinetmaker Elias Svedberg, with whom she designed furniture. In the early 1940s, she was employed by Svenska Slöjdföreningen (now Svensk Forum) and Svenska Arkitekters Riksförbund to make a survey of peoples' home lives. She interviewed housewives about how they were using their homes during the early 1940s. From 1956 until 1960, she was the chief editor of the home decoration magazine Allt i hemmet. predating the similar IKEA brand of knock-down furniture. NK-bo and NK-bo NU was a special store within NK between 1947 and 1956, and from 1961 to 1965, which sold cheap and experimental furniture for the entire family.