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Bruno Mathsson is world-renowned for his classically-comfortable chair designs as well as the creation of his extremely well-insulated and architecturally-amazing glass houses. Another of his best known designs is the Bruno Mathsson Fällbord table, a practical table that provides both beauty and elegance in a home. Additionally Mathsson designed many other versatile pieces of furniture, including computer desks, daybeds, and a selection of tables.

For five generations the Mathsson family had earned a living working with wood, so it comes as no surprise that a young Mattsson would follow in his family's footsteps. As a young boy most of his chores were centered in the furniture and woodworking shop of his family. He grew up around tools, wood and the techniques of furniture building and woodworking.

Mathsson ordered books and consulted experts in order to acquire skills and knowledge, particularly in engineering and technical aspects, not available to him in the Varnamo area. As a result, he acquired the skill sets he needed at the same time that he made contacts that were valuable to him later in his career. The design awards he received for his furniture helped to finance his formal education.

Although he created a lot of different furniture types, all of it was carefully made to be comfortable and beautiful. In addition, he recognized that people like flexibility and like furniture pieces that can be rearranged and used in innovative ways. His modular style adapts easily to different spaces and moods and increases its appeal.

In Swedish, fällbord, as in the Bruno Mathsson Fällbord table, basically means a "folding table". The Bruno Mathsson Fällbord table was first produced in 1935. The table support was made of birch. Table tops have been fashioned using a variety of woods including birch, oak, beech, cherry, ash, and other fine woods as well as a white laminate surface.

The Mathsson table folds into a tiny 23 cm bundle when completely collapsed and expands into a table 280 cm long when fully extended. It can be arranged with a dropped leaf at one or both ends and could serve as a tiny writing table in a coffee nook or expand into a banquet table with nearly every size in between possible. For those not accustomed to metric measurements, that is a range of a bit over 9 inches to about 110 1/4 inches.

It would seem that the Bruno Mathsson Fällbord table was inspired by the collapsible tables one sees in rural houses in Sweden, permitting flexible usage where there is not much room. However, the elegant simplicity of Mathsson's renderings and craftsmanship turned their style into one uniquely his own. While he changed in the 1960's and used metals and up-to-date man-made materials from that point, it is generally felt that his high point was reached with the creation of those furnishings, such as the Fällbord, which he crafted in wood.

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