What happens when a kitchen inspires a piece of furniture?
In this episode of The Sociable Kitchen® Podcast, host Julie Broberg sits down with award-winning Danish designer Rikke Frost, the creative mind behind Kvik’s Align kitchen and now The Sociable Bench — part of the Kvik Living collection.
Rikke shares how the idea for the bench grew naturally from the kitchen, how its soft curves echo Align’s signature handle, and how every small detail — from the hidden shelf to the curved edges — serves both form and function.
She also reflects on what makes Danish design so human, why good design should be both inviting and practical, and how autumn colours are currently inspiring her creative world.
✨ The Sociable Bench is Danish design made for togetherness — from the heart of the kitchen to every corner of your home.
This page is a transcript of the episode.
Danish design — Rikke Frost & the Sociable Bench
How did the bench come to be?
Julie: Welcome to The Sociable Kitchen, a podcast by Kvik. I'm Julie Broberg. We've managed to lure award-winning Danish designer Rikke Frost back into the studio to talk about the new bench she has designed for us.
You may remember that we talked to her earlier this year about Align, the kitchen she created for us. If you haven't heard that episode, you really should go back and have a listen, but let's get right into it. Where did the idea for creating a bench for the kitchen begin?
Rikke: It was a dialogue with Kvik, of course, but I believe a bench is actually quite a good extension for the kitchen.
Rikke: It has this sociable feel to it because it's a bench where you come together. That's what you do on a bench. You sit together with somebody or you sit there by yourself. And I thought that the bench would be really good for this kitchen because it's an extension where you can be part of the kitchen and be sociable.
It could also be for the children to stand on so they can take better part. So they can reach. But also if you have friends over somebody who would like to just participate by talking to you while you prepare the food.
So I thought this was a great idea to start with after the kitchen. I think the challenge is also that. Of course the bench is sort of thought together with the Align kitchen. But of course, I wanted the bench to be able to stand on its own and be used in several rooms, several settings, different architectures.
So I think the challenge is always to make it, simple enough and functional, of course, that it can be used many places and not just for the kitchen. So it's not just an arm on on the actual kitchen, it's, it's more of a independent piece of furniture. So that is always the challenge that you can make something that looks natural with Align, but also looks natural when it's put somewhere else off the kitchen or with a different kitchen.
Julie: The sociable bench has the same quiet confidence as the Align kitchen, soft curves, solid oak, and a lightness that makes it easy to move from room to room. It comes in light oak and dark oak, so it's a great companion to any of our kitchens. It's just as natural at the end of a kitchen island as it is in a hallway or under a window, a place to pause, talk, or take off your shoes.
It's great as extra seating at your dining table when you've got a crowd around for dinner. Its form is a soft curve on one side and a straight back that fits perfectly against a wall or up to your kitchen island. And if you look closely, you'll see the same distinctive lines that run through the Align kitchen.The elegant curve of the handle is scaled up and reimagined in the bench’s form.
Rikke: Because I'm the one drawing it, these kind of lines and these shapes and the geometric lines are extended into the next kind of product. It was also the idea that it has to look like Align. But without only looking like Align. But the shapes, of course, are continued into the bench. So yean, the handle is kind of scaled up to a bench.
Rikke: I guess it's more of my comfort zone to design furniture. They're more free in a way. You can put them anywhere. Whereas a kitchen is fixed. It's built in.
Julie: It's kind of architecture in a way.
Rikke: So of course this is a different kind of design, but at the same time, it's still the same process that I go through. You can say it was more into my comfort zone to design the furniture. But of course thinking the bench, actually, I quite like that it has this starting point, the kitchen.
Rikke: And then you start thinking of it in a different way than if I was just given a brief of, could you please make a bench?
Julie: The connection between the Align kitchen and the Sociable Bench isn't just visual, it's emotional. Those same soft lines and gentle curves that make a line feel calm and tactile now find their way into the bench where form becomes feeling and design meets everyday life. In true Danish design fashion.
Rikke: I think the curves on the Align kitchen are all about making it a safe and sensual space. And this is something that I always look into. It has to be this inviting piece of furniture, So it has these rounded curves that invite you and is embracing you in a way. And then you don't bang your knee on it when you walk past.
So again, if you put it up against a kitchen island and, in my kitchen, my kids, when they were younger, they were running around.
This is why it's also so curved. It's because if these corners were sticking out, you would so often bump into them because it's low, it's lower than the kitchen island. So that's why these curves and these rounded soft areas are made because it's both functional, but it also visually something that is softer. It appeals to you and gives you this harmony.
