No. 04
Engawa Bench
White oak, hand-rubbed oil
€ 1,840Solid-wood furniture since 2009
Hinoki & Oak is a small workshop of nine makers. We build benches, chairs and tables from whole logs, joined by hand and finished with oil, so they can be repaired, not replaced.
Our way of working
We make fewer pieces, more carefully. Each one is signed underneath by the person who built it, and comes with a lifetime promise of repair.
The collection
The craft
Most of a piece’s life with us is spent waiting: for the wood to dry, the oil to cure, the joint to settle. We think the waiting is the point.
We buy whole logs from two family forests in Nagano and Jutland, felled in winter when the sap is low.
Boards are stickered and air-dried outdoors, then rested in the workshop until they stop moving.
Every frame is held by mortise-and-tenon and hand-cut dovetails. No metal, no glue you can see.
A final pass with a Japanese plane, then three coats of linseed oil and beeswax, rubbed in over a week.
Materials
No veneers, no stains, no plastic edges. What you see on the surface runs all the way through.
Nagano, Japan
Pale, straight-grained and lightly lemon-scented. Naturally resistant to moisture, so it ages beautifully in bathrooms and entryways.
Jutland, Denmark
Our structural wood. Dense, honest and generous with grain. Oiled rather than lacquered, so scratches can be rubbed out at home.
Flanders, Belgium
Heavy, slubby linen for our cushions, woven in its natural flax colour. Removable, washable, and better every year.
“Our bench has been in the hallway for six years. The children sit on it to put on their boots, guests leave their bags on it. It looks better every winter.”
Liv Andersen-Mori · Engawa bench owner, Copenhagen
Visit us
Sit on everything. Smell the hinoki. Watch the makers below through the long window. Visits are unhurried, by appointment, and always come with a pot of sencha.
From the journal