The workshop
An evening, every evening
How Atelier Nord makes the Oak Lounge Chair, one piece at a time, and why it takes longer than it has to.
Words by Lena Kraus · Photos by Jon Ash
The Oak Lounge Chair, at home.
The Oak Lounge Chair is made for the hour after dinner: a book, a glass, the window. Solid oak, steam-bent where it meets your back, joined by hand without a single visible screw.
The workshop sits at the end of a gravel road, in a building that used to be a dairy. There is no sign on the door. Inside, it smells of wood oil and coffee, and the radio plays quietly while six people do one thing at a time, carefully.
Slow by design
Every piece is made in small batches. Materials are chosen by hand and left to rest before they are worked; parts are fitted, checked and fitted again. It is not the fastest way to make anything, and that is exactly the point.
We could make it faster. We just don’t want to.
Atelier Nord, founder
Look closely and you see the decisions: an edge rounded just enough to feel soft in the hand, a joint you can only find with your fingertips, a finish that will look better in ten years than it does today.
Built to stay
The seat is woven linen over a deep cushion that keeps its shape for years. It arrives assembled and wrapped in blankets, and it gets better the more you sit in it.
When a piece leaves the workshop it carries a small card, signed by the person who finished it. It is a promise, really: that it was made to be used every day, and to be repaired rather than replaced.
