Craft

How a Tessel is made.

A sofa lasts or does not depending on a few decisions nobody sees. Here they are, in the order we make them.

The workshop

Four steps that decide how long it lasts

Each one is done by a person in our Amsterdam workshop, and each one has a number we check.

Hands carving a piece of wood with a chisel, with shavings on the bench — Shaping a beech rail by hand

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

A biscuit joiner cutting a slot in a wooden board, with fine dust in the air — Cutting biscuit slots for a frame joint

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

An upholstered shape on a stand in a workshop, softly lit — A seat insert after wrapping

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

Scissors cutting dark fabric along a wooden ruler on a cutting table — Cutting a cover panel along the ruler

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

What is in it, and where it comes from

Part	Made of	Where
Frame	FSC certified beech, 38 mm sections	Cut and joined in Amsterdam
Seat support	Elastic webbing every 40 mm	Woven in Belgium
Foam	Three layers, no added flame retardant chemicals	Made in the Netherlands
Covers	Wool, bouclé, linen blend or recycled velvet	Woven in the Netherlands, sewn in Amsterdam
Legs	Oiled oak, walnut or powder-coated black steel	Turned in Poland
Links	Two steel link plates between modules, no tools	Stamped in Germany

A person cutting a slot in a wooden board with a biscuit joiner

Repair

Built to be mended, not replaced

Everything on a Tessel can be taken off and replaced: covers, foam inserts, legs, feet and link plates. We keep spare parts for at least ten years after a product leaves the range.

A stained cover. Unzip it and have it dry cleaned, or order a new one in the same or another fabric.
A tired seat. Order a new foam insert. It slides into the existing cover in a minute.
A scuffed leg. Unscrew it and fit a new one. Changing finish later is possible too.
A cracked frame. It is covered for ten years. We collect the module and return it repaired.

The repair guide, with photographs of each step, comes with every sofa and is also available by email on request.

Take-back

When you are done with it, we take it back

Ask for a collection when you order a new sofa and we take the old one away at no charge. The frame is reused or recycled, the foam goes to a recycling partner and the fabric is sent to be turned into insulation.

If a sofa is still in good shape we clean it and sell it on as a second-hand Tessel, with a two-year warranty, and send you half of the sale price as a credit.

Questions about repair or take-back? Write to hello@furniture.phoenixcodes.org.

Wooden hand tools laid out on a workbench in a sunlit workshop

Feel the difference before you buy

Order free swatches, or visit the studio and sit on every layout.

Order free swatches Read the questions we hear most