Motion Lab

Offcut / Made in Sheffield

Six chairs. We are not going to make a seventh.

Built from the short lengths a staircase joinery throws away, in batches of forty, twice a year. When a batch is gone it is gone until the offcuts pile up again.

Pieces in the range
6
Per batch, twice a year
40
People in the workshop
2
Timber from joinery offcuts
92%
Structural guarantee
10yr
Pieces held in a warehouse
0

See the rangeConcept work — fictional brand, built to demonstrate technique. Nothing is for sale.

A wooden chair against a plain studio wall.

Six pieces, dealt like a deck

Each piece sticks while the next slides over it. It is `position: sticky` and nothing else — no scroll listener, no library, not one byte of JavaScript.

  1. A wooden chair against a bare white wall.

    01 / Ash

    The Bentwood, in steamed ash

    One length of ash, steamed for ninety minutes and bent over a former. The grain runs continuously from the front leg to the top rail, which is the whole point and the reason one in five fails.

    Material
    Steamed ash, oiled
    Lead time
    6–8 weeks
    Price
    £340
  2. A black chair in a plain studio setting.

    02 / Ebonised

    The Spindle, ebonised

    Oak, blackened with iron acetate rather than paint, so the grain stays visible and a scratch does not show a different colour underneath.

    Material
    Ebonised oak
    Lead time
    6–8 weeks
    Price
    £385
  3. A metal chair with wooden accents against a grey wall.

    03 / Steel and beech

    The Counter stool, 650mm

    Powder-coated steel frame, beech seat. The only piece with a bought-in component, and the only one we will make to a different height on request.

    Material
    Steel, beech
    Lead time
    3 weeks
    Price
    £240
  4. Two wooden chairs with a ceramic mug and bowls.

    04 / Pair

    The Low pair, sold as two

    Three hundred millimetres to the seat. Sold only as a pair because a single one looks like a mistake in a room, which we learned the expensive way.

    Material
    Ash, sold as two
    Lead time
    10 weeks
    Price
    £560
  5. A wooden chair draped with white fabric.

    05 / Cover

    The loose cover, undyed linen

    Cut for the Spindle and the Bentwood, washed three times before it ships so it has already done its shrinking.

    Material
    Undyed linen
    Lead time
    In stock
    Price
    £85
  6. A wooden chair against a plain studio wall.

    06 / The first one

    The original, still made

    The chair the workshop started with in 2019. Slightly wrong in two places we have decided not to fix, because by now people ask for it that way.

    Material
    Ash, oiled
    Lead time
    8 weeks
    Price
    £310

The range

Lead time is next to the price, because it is the number small makers hide and the one every complaint is about.

  • Bentwood chairSteamed ash, oiled · 6–8 weeks£340
  • Spindle chairEbonised oak · 6–8 weeks£385
  • Counter stoolSteel, beech · 3 weeks£240
  • Low pairAsh, sold as two · 10 weeks£560
  • Loose coverUndyed linen · In stock£85
  • The originalAsh, oiled · 8 weeks£310

Batch eleven opens in March

Forty pieces across the range. We take a deposit when the batch opens and the balance when yours is finished, not before.

Join the batch listConcept work — fictional brand, built to demonstrate technique. Nothing is for sale.