Redesigning Polish Folk Furniture. Tradition Designed Anew

From 15 August to 13 September 2026 the Hermitage at the Royal Łazienki Museum showed furniture from a Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts research project. The display ran from fieldwork and sketches to finished full-scale pieces, with free admission.

The Royal Łazienki Museum on the exhibition:

We invite you to an exhibition presenting Polish folk furniture in a modern design interpretation. It is an inspiring journey through craft, culture and design, where classic forms take on a contemporary character. See how the heritage of handcraft inspires today’s designers.

The exhibition “Redesigning Polish Folk Furniture. Tradition Designed Anew” presents the results of an original research project carried out at the Faculty of Interior Architecture of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw between 2023 and 2025. The project is an attempt to find a contemporary design language inspired by Polish folk furniture-making. The starting point was research conducted in open-air museums and museums of central and eastern Poland, covering the documentation, inventory and analysis of historic furniture made by local craftsmen. The material gathered became the basis for new designs which do not copy the old patterns but interpret them creatively.

The exhibition shows the whole process of its making - from research and first sketches, through design and execution, to finished furniture built at 1:1 scale. It is a story about a dialogue between history and the present, and an attempt to answer the question of how the heritage of Polish material culture can inspire contemporary design.

The furniture collection designed and made as part of the research project “Redesigning Polish Folk Furniture” was recognised as the best trade-fair debut and awarded the “Quality and Innovation Expo 2025” medal at the International Furniture Trade Fair Furniture Warsaw Home 2025 in Warsaw.

What to expect

The Hermitage, ul. Myśliwiecka 1. According to the museum, the exhibition was open only Friday to Sunday, 12:00-18:00. Admission was free. Exhibition design and graphics: Dr Tomasz Gałązka. Organisers: the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and the Royal Łazienki Museum.

The museum published the description and opening hours on its event page.

After the show

The museum has not said whether the collection will travel, and the Łazienki online shop lists no catalogue for this exhibition.

• The Nabis. Prophets of a New Art - the biggest show at the Royal Łazienki Museum this year, in the Officer Cadets’ School building (Podchorążówka) until 15 November 2026.
• A World of Things. Acquisitions 2023-2025 - recent acquisitions of the same museum, from porcelain to carriage lanterns, placed inside the permanent displays of five buildings until 30 September 2026.
• Sculpture for the Wall Unit - ceramic figurines designed at the Institute of Industrial Design in the 1950s, another chapter of Polish everyday design, at Królikarnia, a branch of the National Museum in Warsaw, until 25 October 2026.
• Wickerwork. Craft and Design - the same question about traditional craft in contemporary design, asked of basketry and weaving, at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences Museum, weekdays only, until 30 April 2027.

Museum profile: Royal Łazienki Museum.