When we thought about seating arrangements in our shop, we decided that two long benches would be ideal. Bench seating typifies the sort of communal cuddle that a compact space demands. It would also give us a chance to use some beautiful pieces of local oak we'd had our eye on at a lumber yard in Osterøy.
Man with a van
What we didn't expect, however, is that we'd also stumble upon a little stockpile of reclaimed Merbau at the port in Bergen. Merbau is a tropical hardwood native to Southeast Asia, so we'd been around plenty of it growing up in Malaysia. Finding it in Bergen was like finding a piece of home that had snuck away and followed us across the seas. Late to the party but never to be left behind!
It was a happy coincidence and a great little find, so we did the only thing we could do: combine Norwegian oak and Merbau into a single form, asymmetry marked by perfect parallel lines.
The end result
