When we started living on our own — first in student rooms, then in shared apartments while working — we did what most people do. We thought about the couch first. The TV. The space to sit with friends, to play games, to share long evenings. Lighting was the afterthought. The single ceiling fixture that came with the apartment.
For a while it was enough. Then it wasn't.
The big overhead light flattened every conversation. Movies looked wrong. Friends arrived for dinner and the room felt fluorescent and uninviting. We started adding things — a smaller lamp on a side table, a warmer bulb behind the couch, something dimmable for late evenings. Each small change felt disproportionate to the difference it made. The same room, the same furniture, the same people — but somehow softer, calmer, more itself.
That's when we started taking lighting seriously.
The Korhonen idea
Korhonen is a common Finnish surname. The word's old root means something close to "a little deaf" — and that hit close to home. For years, we'd been deaf to what lighting was actually doing around us. Not just in our living rooms, but everywhere. The way a streetlight makes you feel watched at night. The way a single warm window on a quiet street feels like safety. The way a museum's lighting tells you what to look at and what to walk past. The way a hospital's fluorescents drain you.
Lighting is doing all of this. We just take it for granted.
We started Korhonen in 2022, in Rotterdam, after a long stretch of paying closer attention. We took our cues from Nordic design — Aalto, Iittala, the broader Scandinavian instinct that says objects should be quiet, considered, and serve the moment they're in. Then we went looking for lighting that fit — pieces from international workshops we wanted to share, brought together under one curated lens.
What we believe
A lamp is small in form. It's large in influence. The right one doesn't demand attention — it transforms what's already there.
We make Korhonen for people who want their rooms to speak. For the bedroom that should be calm. The study that should be focused. The living room that should welcome friends. The corner you read in. The hallway you pass through every morning.
You're already surrounded by four walls. We just want lighting to help you make the most of them.
— Akram & Stein
Founders, Korhonen
Rotterdam