Carl Malmsten didn’t have a classical education for a furniture designer in the early 1900’s. He was self-taught and worked during 1909-1915 as a carpenter apprentice while also had an internship at an architectural office.
In 1915 Malmsten, as a completely unknown designer, won both the first and second prize in a competition set up by Svensk Form and architect Ragnar Östberg, to create furniture for the new Stockholm City Hall. Malmsten’s first prize entry was an armchair, that oddly enough was never used in the City Hall, but Östberg gave Malmsten the mission to furnish the Council chamber and offices. The City Hall project became Malmsten’s breakthrough, which led him to start his own design studio in Stockholm and to formulate his own interior ideal; an organic style based on the Swedish nature and tradition.
For the Home Exhibition (sv. Hemutställningen) at Liljevalchs art gallery in 1917, Malmsten won several prizes for his furniture designs for a simple Swedish home. During the 1920’s, Malmsten became the most engaged furniture designer, and for the Stockholm concert hall designed by architect Ivar Tengbom, he created all furnishings for the public spaces. Of these, the upholstered armchair Konsert for the concert hall’s first row is one of the most well-known.
Malmsten also worked on the interior for a.o. Ulriksdals Castle (1923), the offices for Svenska Tändsticksbolaget in Stockholm (1928) and the Swedish suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York (1931). At the Paris World Fair of 1925, Malmsten received a Grand Prix. In the following year he was the recipient of the royal Swedish medal Literis et Artibus.
During the 1930’s, Malmsten was a firm critic of the new modernistic and industrial style of the functionalist movement. At the Stockholm Exhibition in 1930 he designed three rooms with several pieces of furniture, made at his newly started Olof School (1928) where the students were given a technical artistic education.
In 1933 Malmsten founded the private firm Carl Malmsten which 9 years later became a stock company with Malmsten as CEO. In 1946 he was awarded both the St Erik's and the Prince Eugen medals. In 1936 Malmsten was appointed professor and in 1942 he founded the Carl Malmsten Verkstadsstadskola and in 1955 Nyckelviksskolan in Lidingö opened, which was made possible through the royalty Malsten got from a collaboration, started the same year, with several small-scale manufacturers called Nyckelbröderna (eng. The Key Brothers).
In 1958 the Cappellagården school opened in Öland, financed in the same way. At an exhibition at the Röhsska Museum for Craft and Design in Gothenburg 1956, Malmsten launched his first furniture designed for serial production made by Nyckelbröderna. Of these the chair Talavid was Malmstens own favorite.
During the 1950’s and 60’s Malmsten participated in the exhibition Swedish Chairs at the Swedish National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm (1959) while designing several interiors at the Folksam office in the same city. In 1969 the retrospective exhibition Rot och Krona (eng. Root and Crown) was shown at Liljevalchs art gallery.
Three years later, in 1972, Carl Malmsten passed away at the age 84 leaving over 20 000 furniture sketches and drawings created a plethora of finished pieces. He was also the author of several books as well as being a teacher and a well-known cultural celebrity and debater.
