Spotlight | Baldur by Krownlab

Rustic barn aesthetics have had a great run in interiors of the past several years, in residential and commercial markets alike. But, as with many trends, the best-case scenario often lies in iterations of the design that take a more thoughtful, down-played approach in combination with other influences.

Krownlab Baldur in black stainless steel
Krownlab Baldur in black stainless steel

A new hardware product called Baldur will inspire designers and clients who want to push past the rustic barn aesthetic to modern designs that feel fresh, yet still retain all the good feels that oversized sliding doors and large-scale wood floors can offer.

Baldur, by Portland-based architectural hardware designer and manufacturer Krownlab, is a versatile, hubless sliding-door hardware system for commercial and large residential interiors.

Baldur’s sleek-factor is high. Rather than making a wheel that has a small bearing inside of it, Krownlab designers instead fashioned a wheel out of a massive custom bearing four inches in diameter, leaving the center open. Using a much larger wheel ensures super smooth movement; the larger the wheel, the smoother it travels.

This patented “hubless” wheel design, meaning it has nothing anchoring it in the middle, provides Baldur’s movement and presents an uncommon aesthetic quality that distinguishes it from other door systems on the market.

 

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Stefan Andrén, Krownlab founder and CEOStefan Andrén, Krownlab founder and CEO

Many of Krownlab’s products revolve around Krownlab Founder and CEO Stefan AndrĂ©n’s fascination with bearings, and Baldur is the company’s most ambitious effort yet in this exploration.

“There’s something so beautiful about exposing something usually found on the inside,” said Mr. AndrĂ©n, a former product design director for Nike and Motorola. “Almost everything that spins has a wheel with an axel right through the middle. Baldur has nothing in the middle, and the effect is really cool.”

Detail of Baldur hardware at Skylab office
Detail of Baldur hardware at Skylab office

Krownlab created Baldur as a high-end, interior iteration of the classic sliding barndoor with plenty of design possibilities. Mr. AndrĂ©n noticed a gap in the hardware market between American-made traditional barn door hardware with a rustic aesthetic and in many cases a cheaper price point, and higher-end European counterparts with more elaborate designs. Baldur, and many of Krownlab’s other hardware products, capture a modern, streamlined design at a reasonable price point, which is important to the company.

“Part of making a great product is making smart decisions regarding how it’s designed and manufactured so that it benefits our customers,” said Mr. AndrĂ©n.

 

2016.0208.BaldurKrownlab4.SkylabOffice3
Skylab office

Baldur can be mounted to door panels in three ways (top mount, face mount and glass mount), allowing designers flexibility in applying Baldur to work with panels of nearly any size and material, weighing up to 400 lbs. The product’s wide steel-on-steel contact surface between its bearing and track ensures even the heaviest doors glide smoothly. The hardware can be used in a variety of door configurations and is easy to adjust onsite.

Project: Baldur Hardware by Krownlab at Skylab office. Photography: provided by Krownlab
Baldur Hardware by Krownlab at Skylab office. Photography: provided by Krownlab

Baldur is available in three finishes – Brushed Stainless, Black Stainless and Polished Stainless). Fabricated from 300- and 400- series stainless steel, it won’t patina or develop rust, even in damp or humid environments. The product has been tested to 130,000 open-and-close cycles, which is equivalent to 10 years of heavy use, and is suitable for high-traffic commercial environments, requiring virtually no ongoing maintenance. (See image gallery below)

 

Skylab office
Skylab office

Mr. Andrén founded Krownlab in 2009, but he first began toying with hardware designs when he was building his own house in Portland, OR. Originally from Sweden, he had studied in Chicago and lived in Milan, Italy, before landing in Portland.

“I’d wanted to live in a fantastic loft ever since I lived in Chicago, where there was a lot of that style,” said Mr. AndrĂ©n. “But there was very little of that loft style in Portland. I designed my house to feel like a loft. The house was very budgeted, and the space very constrained, so I wanted to use sliding doors to save space. I couldn’t find a product out there that I liked that I could afford. I put together some very basic design drawings and had a friend who welds put them together.”

Project: Vanillawood offices
Project: Vanillawood offices

A few serendipitous articles in the press led to a flurry of activity that never quite died down. Mr. Andrén decided to do a professional market scan, and indeed found a gap in the hardware market that could make his business viable.

Utilizing steel hand-cast locally, Krownlab fabricates its hardware in Portland and sells direct in the commercial architectural interiors market throughout North America. The 13-person company does all design, development, engineering, prototyping and testing in-house. Krownlab outsources its manufacturing to carefully selected local companies, and then the products return to Krownlab hands for assembly, inventory and send-out, ensuring a high quality of customer service.

“We’re building a company around products that have a chance at being timeless if we do them really well.”