TheFurnitureProject
No. 01 — Spindle-back Chair  ·  Solid mango  ·  2026

Vintage forms, in solid wood.

An archive of refectory tables, spindle chairs, scalloped benches and turned-leg consoles — built one piece at a time, in solid mango and teak, in the old European manner. Forty pieces a month. Each has a name before it has a SKU.

↓  Open the catalogue
A single scalloped-back Tarang chair in honey-waxed reclaimed mango wood, standing alone in an empty lime-washed plaster room with a concrete floor, long raking shadow cast from the left by 3pm workshop side-light.
The Tarang chair photographed in a slightly wider frame against a lime-washed plaster wall with a faint hairline crack, a folded khadi cotton cloth on the concrete floor beside it.
Form French-provincial spindle, c. 1920 Material Solid mango, hand-planed Finish Honey wax, hand-rubbed
See the piece →
I  ·  The Pieces
Tarang scalloped-back chair in honey-waxed mango wood, centred in an empty lime-washed room with long raking shadow.
I  —  Pieces

Pieces that sit alone.

A chair after a French provincial original — scalloped apron, turned spindle legs no two of which are identical, oiled in honey wax. We shape the apron with a spokeshave; the silhouette is a hundred years old, the wood is solid mango, the joinery is mortise-and-tenon.

  • No. 01Tarang Spindle-back ChairSolid mango · Honey wax
  • No. 02Ghumti Counter StoolSolid mango · Turned legs
  • No. 03Provincial Side ChairSolid teak · Bleached bone
A low trestle bench in ebonised reclaimed hardwood with hand-forged iron trestle legs, alone in a lime-washed plaster room.
II  —  Pieces

Pieces that gather.

Refectory tables, trestle benches, plank-top dining tables in the old European manner — Tuscan refectory, Belgian farmhouse, Provençal long-table. All-wood joinery: mortise-and-tenon, pegged trestles, draw-bored tenons. Concealed flat-pack hardware where shipping demands it; nothing visible but wood.

  • No. 07Refectory Trestle BenchSolid hardwood · Pegged tenons
  • No. 08Long Plank Table (six)Solid mango · Draw-bored tenons
  • No. 09Round Farmhouse BenchSolid teak · Turned legs
A long console table in reclaimed haveli-teak wood with four hand-forged iron square legs against a lime-washed plaster wall.
III  —  Pieces

Pieces that hold.

Consoles, sideboards, bedside chests in the patinated farmhouse idiom — turned legs, panelled fronts, turned-wood pulls and dovetailed drawers. Where a piece is built from reclaimed timber and the old wax of a previous life survives in the grain, we leave it. It is not damage; it is a date.

  • No. 04Provincial ConsoleSolid teak · Turned legs
  • No. 12Two-Door SideboardSolid teak · Turned-wood pulls
  • No. 18Farmhouse Bedside ChestSolid mango · Dovetailed drawers
An arc-leg side table in haveli-teak reclaimed wood with forged black iron arc supports against a plaster wall.
IV  —  Pieces

Pieces that keep watch.

Side tables, mirrors, entryway consoles drawn from atelier and farmhouse references. Slender, turned-leg, quiet — the objects a room meets first and last, the way a gallery labels a small bronze and steps back.

  • No. 21Arc-leg Side TableSolid teak · Bent-wood arc
  • No. 24Carved-frame Floor MirrorSolid mango · Hand-carved
  • No. 27Entryway BenchSolid mango · Turned legs
An interlude

The edge a hand made.

Extreme macro of solid mango-wood end-grain with a natural split filled with amber honey wax.
End-grain  ·  wax-filled split
Macro of a draw-bored mortise-and-tenon joint in honey-waxed solid mango, the wooden peg flush with the surface.
Mortise & tenon  ·  pegged in wood
Close-up of the hand-shaped scalloped apron on a spindle-back chair seat-rail in honey-waxed mango, raking light showing spokeshave facets.
Scalloped apron  ·  spokeshave facets
II  ·  The Makers
Documentary photograph of Ramesh Kumar at a Saharanpur workbench at 4pm, sleeves rolled, shaping the apron of a scalloped-back chair with a spokeshave, face turned partly into the workshop side-light.
The Makers  ·  I

Ramesh Kumar, master joiner. Thirty-four years at the bench.

Ramesh joined his father's bench in 1991. He shapes the aprons on the spindle-back chairs with a spokeshave his father gave him in 1997 — a tool older than he is, handle worn smooth by two hands.

He measures a chair-leg by eye and finishes it within a millimetre. He does not work to a drawing; the drawing is in the spokeshave. The forms he builds are European — provincial, refectory, farmhouse — held in the hands of an Indian master joiner.

He is one of two makers we name. There are nine others at the bench. We will name them as the work earns it.

Meet the workshop →
Documentary macro of a calloused Indian hand gripping a 40-year-old wooden-handled chisel mid-cut into haveli teak with a pale shaving curling off the steel edge.
Chisel  ·  4pm
Still life of a Saharanpur workbench corner — spokeshave, wooden maul, gouge, rolled measuring tape, a cold steel cup of chai, wood shavings.
The bench  ·  seven tools
Extreme macro of a spokeshave blade pulling a fresh pale shaving from honey-waxed mango wood in raking workshop side-light.
Spokeshave  ·  the cut
III  ·  The Form
Archival cool-grey-sepia heritage photograph of an early 1900s French provincial console — turned legs, panelled front, hand-shaped apron, oak with dark wax patina.
After  ·  A French provincial console, c. 1920  ·  Archival reference
The Provincial Console — a long console table in honey-waxed solid teak with turned legs and turned-wood pulls — in a lime-washed plaster room.
Made now  ·  The Provincial Console  ·  Solid teak, 2026
FormAfter a French provincial console, c. 1920 MaterialSolid teak, hand-planed JoineryMortise-and-tenon, turned legs, dovetailed drawer FinishHoney wax, hand-rubbed Made byRamesh Kumar  ·  No. 04 Provincial Console  ·  2026

We work in the old European idiom — provincial, refectory, farmhouse, atelier — and build it fresh in solid wood. Where the timber itself carries a prior life, we leave the marks. The form, though, is what the room remembers.

Extreme macro of a draw-bored peg in honey-waxed solid teak — round wooden dowel flush with the surface, end-grain visible.
Pegged tenon  ·  wood into wood
Extreme macro of a 3mm-deep chisel gouge mark on a honey-waxed spindle-back chair apron, raking light showing the exact angle of the cut.
Chisel mark  ·  the cut by hand
A hundred-year-old form, made now in solid wood.
IV  ·  The Workshop
Saharanpur  ·  Uttar Pradesh Wide documentary photograph of a Saharanpur workshop courtyard at 4pm — earthen floor, bronze padlock on a cracked door, Devanagari signage on a lime-washed wall, wood shavings, a workbench with tools, a single shaft of dusty sunlight.
Close-up of a weathered hand-painted workshop sign on a lime-washed plaster wall.

The workshop is on a lane off Station Road. No signboard at the front — only a hand-painted mark above a door that has not been repainted since 1997. Eleven joiners. Forty pieces a month.

Wide architectural photograph of a stone workshop facade at mid-morning.

The wood is plank-sawn solid mango and teak, cured slow. Where reclaimed timber is available — a beam, a door panel — we use it and say so on the ledger entry. Otherwise the timber is fresh and solid.

Vintage forms. Solid wood. Built one piece at a time, in the old European manner. कारीगर  —  "the maker"

Correspondence

If you would like to be told when a piece is made.

We write once a month, when a piece leaves the workshop. Your address, nothing else.