About

Magdalena Tekieli sitting on a black wooden chair, black and white portrait — Portrait: Dagmara Borowska

Magdalena Tekieli is a designer of bespoke furniture and a graduate of the Faculty of Industrial Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. Her Secret Desk is in the permanent collection of the National Museum in Kraków, and her Cabinet series furnishes the suites of Raffles Europejski Warsaw.

She designs furniture and functional objects that blur the line between function and pure art. Her design is a story of geometry, noble materials and craftsmanship that stands the test of time. Magdalena Tekieli believes furniture should not merely fill a space. It should help shape it, giving it a character of its own.

Education: grounded at the Kraków Academy

Her professional eye for form was shaped at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she graduated from the Faculty of Industrial Design. There, guided by outstanding teachers, she learned product design, ergonomics and the technologies that turn an artistic vision into a functional object.

Studying at the Faculty of Design and the Faculty of Textiles of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana was a breakthrough. Experiments with new media and textile design, and an international environment, broadened her horizons and shaped a distinct design identity. She came to understand that beauty lies in nuance, and that good craft takes time, patience and deep respect for the material.

Beginnings: where detail meets form

Her path to original design began with a fascination with structure, texture and precision. Before she gave her heart fully to large-scale furniture, she learned to see beauty on a micro scale as the founder of the stationery brand Paper Love. There, in geometry, a love of paper and demanding materials, the philosophy that still defines her work as Magdalena Tekieli Design was born: an uncompromising pursuit of perfection in every detail.

Magdalena Tekieli in a light coat at a workshop table, with the Champagne Kisses bookshelf behind her

Magdalena Tekieli in a black suit leaning against a pale wall

The path: between technology and craft

Over the years her passion for construction evolved naturally into original furniture and interior design. Her portfolio filled with pieces of refined lines, in which wood, brass and traditional Viennese cane gain a new, contemporary context.

Important milestones came with brands for whom design must speak a world-class language. For SONY Poland, in the UNLTD. project, she designed “Cabinet”: a minimalist low commode in solid oak, finished in piano-black lacquer and brass, created for the launch of Sony's flagship BRAVIA W9 television.

Another sign of maturity were the pieces created for the iconic Raffles Europejski hotel in Warsaw. Designing furniture for an interior so full of history established her position in the world of design.

Timeless in a museum: national heritage

The greatest reward for years of work is the moment when an original vision is recognised as part of the national cultural heritage. A particularly important stage of her career was when art historians and museum curators recognised her signature design.

Her Secret Desk, a transforming piece that combines fine wood, leather and a hidden crank mechanism, debuted at the monumental exhibition “#dziedzictwo” (#heritage) in the Main Building of the National Museum in Kraków. The exhibition, documenting the key phenomena of Polish identity and design across the centuries, ran from 23 June 2017 to 14 January 2018.

After the exhibition the design was officially included in the permanent state collection. Since December 2021 Secret Desk has been on permanent display in the Szołayski House, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków. In the Gallery of 20th and 21st Century Polish Design “Przedmioty” (Objects) it stands shoulder to shoulder with the most important works of Polish applied art, proof that true quality and timelessness speak for themselves.

Magdalena Tekieli in a suite at Raffles Europejski Warsaw

Her philosophy today

Today, under her own name, Magdalena Tekieli creates furniture that comes from passion, design maturity and uncompromising quality. She works with the best Polish craftsmen to make sure that every object leaving her studio carries a part of her story and becomes a special part of its owner's.

National Museum in Kraków

Secret Desk in the permanent collection

On permanent display since December 2021 in the Szołayski House, in the Gallery of 20th and 21st Century Polish Design “Przedmioty” (Objects).