Getting Hygge With It

Owner’s Scandinavian pedigree informs local modern-furniture store 

A spin around Ambiente Modern Furniture is a mini trip around the world. The Biltmore Village store offers sophisticated modern Scandinavian and Italian furniture, accessories, and lighting, plus fine American-made pieces. “We focus on offering furniture that is supremely functional, even therapeutic, as well as striking and sustainable,” says company proprietor Jasper Haugaard. 

Ambiente is known for carrying the Norwegian Stressless seating line, the Italian Magniflex brand of mattresses, and hardwood pieces manufactured in Vermont by the Copeland Company, among many others. 

The connection to Scandinavian furniture is authentic, familial. Haugaard’s grandfather, Dan Haugaard, was a Danish painter and woodcarver who attended renowned Black Mountain College, an avant-garde Mid Century institution near Asheville known for nurturing cutting-edge designers, artists, and writers — everyone from composer John Cage to sculptor Ruth Asawa to geodesic-dome inventor Buckminster Fuller. 

“People were pretty adventurous then,” asserts Haugaard. “My grandparents traveled extensively through Europe and the United States, and my grandfather imported Danish furniture in the 1960s, selling it in Massachusetts.” In fact, Haugaard’s father met his mother while she was working at one of the stores. They relocated to Raleigh and ran that store for 35 years. 

Haugaard helped out too, starting in middle school, doing whatever needed to be done. After a decade-long stint as a chef in the fine-dining world, he ended up back in Raleigh six years ago, looking for a new direction. Haugaard’s parents, who own Ambiente Modern Furniture there, tapped him to launch the Asheville version of the store in 2017. “I never looked at the family business as something I’d be doing long term, but one thing led to another, and I’m really enjoying running our store here,” he says. “Believe it or not, there’s overlap between the food and furniture worlds — in terms of catering to many different tastes, maintaining high standards of execution, and focusing on the importance of the visual.” 

Haugaard praises the aesthetic versatility of their Stressless line, as well as its customizability. “These pieces come in many wooden and metal finishes, multiple styles, and a variety of upholstery options, the majority of which are leather because it’s so durable,” he explains. “Stressless seating is available in three different sizes, and in helping you choose your furniture, we actually fit it to your body — the process is not unlike sizing shoes, except with us, it’s furniture.” The therapeutic design of Stressless products, which provide lumbar and head support, is so innovative, Haugaard notes, that the line earned an endorsement from the American Chiropractic Association. 

He adds that a hallmark of Scandinavian design is fulfilling multiple purposes. “These pieces work well in many different spaces, including small-scale living situations.” 

Haugaard says Ambiente is serious about sustainability, and mentions that furniture, when not made consciously, emits considerable toxins into people’s homes. He shares that the store carries only furniture that’s “clean” in all steps of its production, from the process of harvesting the wood it’s made from up through the manufacturing process. 

 “People often become interested in learning about us from simply spying our delivery trucks in their neighborhood, or just old-fashioned work of mouth,” Haugaard says. “They keep coming back, and we develop lots of long-term relationships with them, because our products are investment pieces that typically last for decades.” 

Haugaard asserts that people don’t necessarily realize what a truly comfortable furniture piece is, because they’ve never sat in or laid atop one. “It’s a rather abstract idea, when you think about it,” he says. “But since you spend over half your life sitting or sleeping, committing to buying high-quality and well-performing furniture is one of the simplest ways to improve your quality of life.”  

He wants shoppers to remain blissfully unhurried. “We encourage you to bring a book, stay for hours, and really get to know how our furniture feels.”

Ambiente Modern Furniture, 9 Reed St., Biltmore Village. The store is open Monday through Saturday, 10am-5pm, and Sunday, 12-5pm. For more information, call 828-412-5505, e-mail asheville@ambientefurniture.com, or see ambientefurniture.com.