Refined, handcrafted, made-to-order timber chairs designed for longevity are an unforgiving artform. Tables, sideboards, even sofas – none are as difficult to draw, exacting to construct or as ‘high consequence’ to not-quite-nail as a stripped back, bespoke chair with zero superfluous detailing or margin for error.
According to Jeremy Lee, the Sydney-born, Mullumbimby-based designer and maker behind JD Lee Furniture, a chair's feedback is singular. “Sit in a chair and immediately you know if it doesn't feel good,” he says of the traditional joinery craftsmanship that lured him from industrial design to furniture making at the age of 29. “Ergonomics defines the piece. If it doesn't feel right, you don't want to sit on it.”
So there's plenty riding on his post-pandemic project Cherish, a collection of 10 such beauties…
