Mvule
Iroko. Golden brown going deep amber with age, and hard enough to be unbothered by children.
Drag to turn it. Tap it to take it apart.
Karura lounge chair 660 × 760 × 790 mm, width, depth and height
Made to order, Karen, Nairobi
Made once,
properly.
The Karura chair, specified by you and cut next week. Every choice below moves three numbers at once: what it costs, how many hours of somebody's life it takes, and when it arrives.
TimberMvule
Seat & backHand-woven sisal
CushionLinen
SizeStandard
…
Including VAT, delivered Nairobi
…Maker hours
…Weeks
What it costs
The cheap chair
is the expensive one.
This is the comparison we get asked to make in the showroom, so we may as well make it here. Same shape, same room, wildly different arithmetic. The figures on the right move with whatever you specified above.
Imported, flat-packed
KES 18,500
- FrameRubberwood & ply
- JointsDowel & screw
- RepairableNo
- Typical life3 years
KES 6,167
Per year of use
Made here
…
- Frame…
- JointsMortise & tenon
- RepairableYes, by us, forever
- Typical life30 years
…
Per year of use
…
The timbers
Four woods.
All of them local.
Everything we use is grown and milled in Kenya, and every board is bought from plantations we have actually been to. We will not quote for imported oak; there are enough people doing that already.
Wild olive
Pale honey with dark streaks that no two boards share. The showiest and the slowest to work.
Kenyan cedar
Warm red, light, aromatic. The kindest to a room with a lot of hard surfaces in it.
Ebonised mvule
Our own iron-and-vinegar stain. Near black, but the grain still reads across the surface.
How it's made
Six weeks,
and most of it drying.
We do not hold stock. Your chair does not exist until you order it, which is the reason it takes six weeks and the reason it fits.
01
Boards chosen
We pull the boards for your chair from the rack and lay them out so the grain runs the way it should across the arms.
Week 1
02
Cut & jointed
Mortise and tenon throughout, cut on the machine and fitted by hand. No screws anywhere in the frame.
Weeks 2 to 3
03
Seat woven or upholstered
Sisal is woven on the frame by one person over two days. Upholstery goes out to Rose in Kawangware, who has done ours since 2016.
Week 4
04
Oiled
Four coats of hardwax oil, a day between each. This is the part nobody can rush and the part everyone tries to.
Week 5
05
Delivered & registered
We bring it, we take the packaging away, and the chair goes on the register under your name so a repair in 2044 finds its own drawings.
Week 6
Order
Tell us where
it's going.
A 50% deposit starts the work and the balance is due when we deliver. If you want to see and feel a sample board first, say so. We post them free anywhere in Kenya.
Your specification
PieceKarura lounge chair
Timber…
Seat & back…
Cushion…
Size…
Maker hours…
Ready in…
Total, delivered…