I don’t know what on earth happened from a business perspective to reduce Skandium, once one of the best known retailers of Scandinavian design and furniture with four outlets across London (two big, beautiful stores on Marylebone High Street and in South Kensington and concessions in Selfridges and the Fritz Hansen shop in Fitzrovia), to a messy pile of stuff at their closing down sale last weekend.

While I was pleased to hoover up some bargains at the sale (it was odd to see certain design classics I thought I’d never see in the bargain bin at 40% off though sadly, the giant Kay Bojesen monkey was not for sale), I was really quite sad to see one of my favourite stores close and for all the stylish, knowledgable staff to lose their jobs.

In slightly more positive news, it appears that Skandium will be back at some point: the administrators have found a buyer that intends to focus on rebuilding the brand as an online business with a view to eventually reopening the stores. In the meantime, I’ll have to source my design tat elsewhere.