In my workshop we design and manufacture custom brutalist creations for each audience. The important thing is to take care of every detail from the design to the transport to your home. I am personally in charge of receiving the client, talking about their idea, what they are looking for, getting it right so that there is great communication in the development process. Each piece of furniture is unique due to its characteristics, such as a walnut plank, with its grain, its irregularities, its charm.
We manufacture custom brutalist creations with noble woods such as olive, oak, walnut … Furniture pampered one by to last hundreds of years and for the enjoyment of the whole family.
Where to find brutalist furniture in Spain?
There is good brutalist furniture made by artists, artisans, designers, and even architects. They are furniture pampered one by one with good materials, good woods that are sought each one of them throughout the territory and even outside of Spain. It requires a lot of research work as it is not easy to find quality rustic woods that are dry and appropriate for the end use. Often we have to prepare the wooden planks ourselves, look for the particular one that has a tree to cut down and thus, do the first step: get wood. Then, the log must be taken to a sawmill to cut the log into planks, boards, etc. and let the wood dry for several years. This is how we are going to get our “solid wood warehouse” to be able to work.
Another important step will be to attract customers interested in brutalist creations. It is a slow task that requires a lot of work. Website, advertising, exhibitions, etc. It is clear that the client for this kind of furniture will always be looking for a “custom-made furniture”. Whether it be for an olive bathroom worktop, an oak kitchen worktop, a walnut television table, a chestnut living room table … and we have to have wood in order to propose something to you. Next, we have to talk about “rustic furniture design”. Here, we are often faced between what can be found in large stores and what we can offer in return. It is not an easy task again because, we are going to be more expensive, of course …
We are talking about a unique piece of furniture, made to measure, with a personalized design, an exclusive wood…. And even so, sometimes we get almost the same price as a store.
Our strong point as designers-artisans is the personalized treatment that can be given to each piece of furniture that leaves the workshop. As some client said talking about custom rustic tables: “it’s like a childbirth” there is a whole process to follow, step by step until the result is the furniture made with love and affection to enjoy it for a lifetime …
What are the best woods to make furniture?
It is the typical question…. Well, the truth is that there are no bad woods; there are very beautiful woods but very difficult to work or because they have movements and can twist or crack. There are very good hardwoods for a table and very bad for a furniture door …
So what wood is good for a table, for example?
You could use practically any known wood such as oak, walnut, cherry, pine, fir, chestnut, elm etc. As I always say, it depends on the budget of each one … There are 200 year old tables made of pine or Spanish walnut … It is clear that there are very long lived woods such as oak for example. There is a reason why Versailles and the cathedrals have almost been always made of oak in France. Here, in Spain, depending on the region, are of pine, chestnut or oak.
So if you want a 500 year old table, go for oak … it ages very well, works very well, carves wonderfully and doesn’t even need a special finish. Holds perfectly only with oil if we want a more polished touch. But if you want a piece of furniture with a warmer air, I would opt for a walnut, elm or cherry table. If they are native woods, better because they are usually more beautiful with a spectacular grain.
Jean Baptiste Van den Heede.