This Valentine’s Day it appears the Swedes have a bead on living room accoutrements to put you in the mood. For after you’ve retired into the plush surround of the Kvilt Sofa or Easy Chair by Gärsnäs, you and your beloved can bask in the calm glow of Ruben’s Royal Pendant Lamp, affectionately subtitled “The Glow Ball.” Not that there’s anything particularly circular about it. The piece has a look all its own, though possible referents include an old school torchiere, a particularly geometrical fir tree, and a stoplight.

Pendant Lamp. Designed by Niclas Hoflin for Ruben.

A Calming Glow From a Modern Pendant

Manufacturer Ruben extols the symmetrical quality of the piece, asserting that its linear orientation and equally-spaced members disperse an even, ambient light—no harsh glare, no blinding over-exposure: “With the glowing lights in an organized distance between each other, the whole point with Royal 6 is to create a feeling of calm. Trust. For a good life.” Not to say that the only required components for a good life are Royal’s trunk-and-branch assortment of cylindrical bulbs, but they certainly can’t hurt, especially since they give the impression of a fire-side evening—the controlled flame descending from on high, rather than plopped down in the center of your living space.

Designer Niclas Hoflin is passionate about Royal, as he is about all things related to A&D. In addition to lighting design, the Stockholm based Hoflin has been an architect, a musician, and a furniture builder. With this resume, he knows well the importance of function, and his life’s work thus reaches for a synergy between utility and beauty: “Without a function in a product there is no point doing it, and if it’s not beautiful it has no function. All I do is done by lust.” With Royal and its smaller sibling Royal 6, Hoflin’s aspirations are well-realized. If you and your Valentine are in its company this February 14, look for Royal to inspire some lust in turn.