About
A small furniture workshop in Lahti
Koivu Furniture is a group of cabinetmakers, an upholsterer and a finisher who design and build solid wood furniture to order. Everything on this site is drawn, made and finished under one roof in Lahti.
Working drawing of the Kuisti chair. Every piece starts as a full-size drawing.
Why Lahti
Lahti and the villages around it have made furniture for generations. Sawmills, joiners and upholsterers have long worked here side by side, and that know-how is still close at hand: the timber yard, the blade sharpener and the fabric supplier are a short drive away.
We have chosen to stay small. A small workshop can make each piece to order, talk to the customer directly and fix things later. It also makes it easy to say no to shortcuts.
How we work
Four rules we do not bend
They make the furniture a little slower to build and a lot longer to live with.
- Solid wood onlyNo chipboard and no veneered panels in frames or tops. The back panel of the sideboard is the only plywood we use.
- Joints that lastMortise and tenon, dowels and glue. A chair should feel as tight in twenty years as on the day it arrives.
- Made to repairWe keep every drawing. Spare cushions, new covers, refinishing and replacement parts are available for as long as we make furniture.
- Made to orderWe build what has been ordered. No overproduction, no clearance sales and no warehouse full of furniture waiting for a buyer.
The workshop
From drawing to delivery
Four kinds of work under one roof, and the same few people looking after your order from start to finish.
Design and joinery
The cabinetmakers draw each new piece full size on the workshop wall before the first prototype is cut.
Upholstery
Cushions are filled, sewn and fitted in the room next door, so the frame and the cushion are made for each other.
Finishing
Every surface is sanded and oiled or lacquered by hand, then checked in daylight before it is wrapped.
Delivery
Our own van covers southern Finland; the driver carries the furniture in and takes the packaging away.
Visit the workshop
The showroom is in the workshop in Lahti, about an hour from Helsinki by train. It is open Monday to Friday 9–17, and on Saturdays by appointment. We send directions when you book.