For me as an art historian studying visual culture, the applied art represented by the embroidered surface of the sofa cushion, have proved to be an important site telling me about our recent past. In this paper I want to explore what stories are brought up to date in the modern day design revival or appropriation of the do-it-yourself (DIY) aesthetics of Swedish folk art.

Alongside the embroidered wall hanging, the embroidered sofa cushion has been one of the most frequent DIY-object in popular press. It represents the exotic, idealised country life of the urbanised Swedish people. In a recent study on early 20-century wool embroideries I noticed a turn towards the visual comfort of the past during the 1930s and 1940s. This might have been caused by the threat of war and it resulted in the increased use of national if not nationalistic symbols. In several cultural media this aesthetics is brought the surface again today. I will discuss some prominent examples, asking questions such as: What does the return, the revisiting to and reusing of these almost century old reconstructions of a rural past implicate today? When the old visual features are echoed in contemporary design, does that necessary mean that the same ideological and historical notions are evoked? Might the nationalistic overtones even be amplified in a multi cultural society? Who listens to the call from the corner of your sofa?