Pedersen + Lennard’s Tulbagh Chair is a reimagining of its historical counterpart and namesake. As a modern homage to the iconic 1800s Cape Country classic, the Tulbagh Chair has ushered in a new era for the design house that’s known for its playful use of colour and an Afro-Scandi aesthetic that blends minimalism with boldness. Since then, the Tulbagh Chair has grown into a full-fledged collection of 12.
This could never be just one chair
“It was clear to me that the chair could grow into a whole collection,” says co-founder Luke Pedersen. “There’s a timelessness to it and a core sentiment that was waiting to be explored. It’s actually taken years for this chair to come to life, and now that it’s here – we’re running with it. It’s really fun to extrapolate a collection based on one idea.”
And run they have. Since the Tulbagh Chair’s launch, the collection has grown by 11 members to include a stately Table, freestanding Shelves, a Coat Stand and, for the first time in any Pedersen + Lennard collection, a Door Stop. “My favourite piece is actually the Door Stop,” says Luke. “He’s a simple, practical, hardworking little guy, but the same thought that runs through the Tulbagh Chair runs through this design.”
“We grow a Collection if we can apply the same idea to a new piece. So, with the expansion of the Tulbagh Collection, you’ll notice that everything shares an intent: resourceful, pared-down beauty. There is nothing ornate about Cape country furniture, but it is striking in its spare design and sturdiness.”
“Much of what is now regarded as “Cape” design was actually found through exploration and very practical constraints,” says Luke. “Things like: what kind of tools people had access to, what type of wood they had lying around, and how much time they had to devote to making furniture in between everything else they had going on. For me, zooming into the hyper-local context of the Cape for design inspiration has been very rewarding.”
A talent for timber
“Chairs are actually notoriously difficult to make, especially if you have a clean aesthetic like we do,” says Luke. “I want this chair to look as beautiful from upside down as it does from the top. And because we’re balancing how the chair looks with how strong it is, you can imagine how fine our margins for success are – someone needs to be able to sit on this chair every day for the rest of their life, and it also needs to look good at the same time.”
Artisanal wood joinery techniques are not favoured in most modern furniture factories; they require a high level of skill and attention to detail that is not conducive to production at scale. That Pedersen + Lennard has produced hundreds of these pieces is a testament to their uncompromising pursuit of an authentic vision.
Time is a circle
In planning a shoot to showcase the Tulbagh Collection, Pedersen + Lennard turned to a like-minded brand, kruijd, headed by Hannes Maritz. A unique retreat in the farmlands of Wellington, about 50 kilometres or 30 miles from Tulbagh, kruijd offers guests a slow, considered approach to life.
The collection was mostly shot in the now-reimagined barn where, centuries ago, farmers spent their days threshing and storing harvested crops. “kruijd is locked in time,” says Luke. “It felt like we were able to go back in time and design from this same era, and then shoot it in a location that places the furniture in its roots.”
“There is so little furniture at kruijd, and when there are pieces, they’re used really well. There’s a frugality here, not an opulence. And in that there’s a perfect mirroring of our collection,” says Luke. “What I really want people to understand about this collection is that it’s been designed from a context, from a place. It’s not just beautiful, it’s got a real story.”
