Arc
A round-backed armchair that holds you in.
From €890
Modular sofas, made in Amsterdam
A sofa that changes when your life does.
Tessel One is built from modules that click together. Add a seat when the family grows, a chaise when you move somewhere bigger, and take it all with you when you leave.
Sofas from €890, three seats from €2,190. Delivered in 6 to 8 weeks.
A curved velvet sofa in Ijssel Moss, on slim black legs with brass feet. Focus this view, then use the arrow keys to turn it, plus and minus to zoom, and 0 to reset the view.
Drag the sofa to turn it. Pick a dot to change the fabric.
- 6 to 8 weeks made to order in Amsterdam
- 10 years warranty on the beech frame
- 30 days to try it at home
- Free swatches, posted within three working days
Built from modules
One system, four sofas.
Every Tessel One module is its own piece of furniture with its own frame, cushions and legs. They link with two plates and no tools, so the sofa you buy now can grow or turn a corner later.
- Solo One seat with two arms. Fits a reading corner or a studio flat. from €890
- Trio Add two modules and it seats three. Nothing is replaced, only added. from €2,190
- Trio with chaise Swap the right end for a chaise when you have a longer room. from €2,530
- Corner Turn the corner with a corner module and a return seat. from €3,380
Fabrics
Eighteen fabrics, woven in the Netherlands.
Wool for the dry, dense feel. Bouclé for loops you want to touch. Linen blend for an airy, relaxed look. Recycled velvet for a soft pile that survives a dog.
Armchairs and footstool
Two chairs and a stool to go with it.
Arc wraps around you. Sill sits square and low. Both use the same frame and the same fabrics as the sofa, so they sit next to it without matching it too closely.
And the Dot footstool, from €290, when you want to put your feet up.
The workshop
Made slowly, so it lasts
Four steps decide whether a sofa is still good in fifteen years. This is how we do each one.
01
A beech frame, cut and shaped by hand
Every module starts as FSC certified beech from managed forests in Germany. The planks dry for six weeks to eight percent moisture, so the frame does not creak in a heated flat. Edges are rounded by hand because a sofa gets carried, leaned on and sat on the arm of, and square corners chip.
38 mm beech sections, joined without staples
02
Joints and webbing that give a little
The frame is held together with dowels and biscuit joints, glued and clamped overnight. Across the seat we stretch elastic webbing every 40 millimetres, so the seat has a gentle spring and never sags into a hollow. The same webbing sits behind the back cushions.
40 mm between each strip of webbing
03
Foam in three densities
The seat has a firm base, a medium core and a soft top layer, wrapped in a thin fibre sheet so the cover stays smooth. The back cushions are softer and refill themselves. The foam is made in the Netherlands without added flame retardant chemicals, and each insert unzips for replacement.
3 layers in every seat, from firm to soft
04
Fabric cut once, by a person
Each cover is cut from a single roll by one cutter, so the pattern and the colour run the same way across the whole sofa. We check the grain against a ruler, mark every panel and sew the covers in our own workshop. If a panel is off by more than two millimetres, it is cut again.
2 mm the most a panel may be out
Illustrative reviews
What owners say
4.8 from 6reviews
Tessel is a fictional brand, so these reviews are written for this showcase. A real site would show verified customer reviews here.
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A footstool that does three jobs
It is a footstool, a spare seat and, with a tray on top, the coffee table. The plum velvet picked up a pen mark once and it brushed straight out.
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Four seats and nobody is left on a chair
The Quartet fills one whole wall and it is the first sofa we have owned that seats the whole family and the grandparents. The foam has stayed firm after eight months of film nights.
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Firm, wide and a good shelf
The Sill is firmer than I first expected, which is perfect for working with a laptop. The flat arms take a mug and a book. I would have liked one more fabric in a lighter green.
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The Arc is the best chair in the flat
I bought one Arc to read in. My partner now fights me for it. The ochre velvet changes colour through the day and the curved back holds your shoulders without feeling tight.
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We moved the corner sofa ourselves
We took the Corner apart on a Saturday, put it in a van and rebuilt it in the new flat in about fifteen minutes. The link plates click and that is it. It looks exactly as it did before.
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Dog approved, wool survived
Our greyhound sleeps on the chaise and has done for six months. The ink wool has not pilled and the hair brushes off with a damp glove. The chaise is long enough for me to lie on with my feet flat.
Free swatches
Hold the fabric against your floor.
Choose up to five fabrics and we post A5 swatches, free of charge, within three working days. Screens lie about colour, so please do not trust ours.
