half the pieces in our catalogue do not exist right now. the puffa m4 armchair you can order today has not been built; the wool for it is still on a shelf in a ukrainian workshop. this is not a stock problem — it is how most serious small studios work, and once you understand the mechanics, it is arguably the best way to buy design.
what “made to order” actually means
a made-to-order piece is a finished design waiting for a reason to be produced. the form, the material, the edition — all of that is fixed. what does not exist yet is your exemplar. when you order, the studio starts building exactly one, for you. this is different from bespoke, where you commission something that has never existed, and different from a warehouse product, where hundreds sit in cartons waiting to be picked.
studios work this way for reasons that hold up: no capital buried in stock, no storage, nothing produced that nobody wants. for a two-person workshop, made to order is the difference between building pieces and building inventory.
reading a listing like a collector
on our listings, three lines tell you what kind of purchase you are making. the lead time — “made to order — 4 weeks” on the puffa m4, “delivery within 30 days” on the s-tool — is the studio's production window, not a shipping estimate. the edition line tells you whether your exemplar joins a numbered series or stands alone. and the condition line tells you where it ships from — with us, that is the studio itself, insured, not a fulfilment centre.
a listing with zero stock and a lead time is not sold out. it is available in the truest sense: the studio is ready to make yours.
what happens after you order
you pay the full price at checkout, like any purchase. we notify the studio the same day, and the production window starts. the piece is built, checked, packed and shipped insured, directly from the workshop to your door — within the eu, shipping is part of the price. nothing travels twice, nothing waits in a warehouse. when the chopstick stool arrives, the hands that joined its split legs packed the box.
the waiting is real — four weeks for a wool armchair, longer for lacquered furniture — and it is the honest cost of pieces that are not mass-produced. statutory return rights apply as on any online purchase; the details are in each listing's fine print.
why this is good for you, not just the studio
a made-to-order piece was never handled by a warehouse, never discounted to clear space, never produced on spec. its edition number reflects pieces that people actually wanted. and because the studio produces against real orders, the craft economics stay sound — which is what keeps small workshops alive long enough for their early pieces to become sought after.
if you want to start somewhere, the under €200 collection mixes in-stock and made-to-order pieces — the listing always tells you which one you are looking at.