Unto This Last Cage bin, Facet chair, and Lock table

Your Lo’s List London correspondents have recently moved into new, unfurnished digs in Islington and, as you can imagine, we’ve had flat-pack on our minds for weeks. But while it’s all well and good to put together beds and shelves with nothing more than Allen keys and some frustrating pegs, some pieces of furniture demand more care in their selection.  With all the hours we spend at our computers each day, the choice of a perfect writing desk was always going to be a difficult one. What a relief, then, that a weekend trip to the Columbia Road flower market and Brick Lane led us right to the door of Unto This Last.

This furniture workshop uses up-to-the-minute digital manufacturing techniques to produce quirky and elegant pieces with light, clean lines. We immediately fell in love with Unto This Last’s ‘Lock’ table (seen above) — and are writing from it now — but we’ve been designing imaginary houses around our favorite pieces from their broad catalog: the tapered ‘Ply’ table, the ‘Cell’ shelf, the ‘Nurbs’ coffee table and the surprisingly comfortable ‘Facet’ chair.

Unto This Last Ply Feet Sideboards

Unto This Last take their odd name from a book by John Ruskin that critiques the economic and manufacturing practices of his time, giving a Victorian take on green principles and urging a ‘return to the local craftsman workshops’. The atelier’s ‘micro-manufacturing’ process carries on this tradition and is tailored to limit their carbon footprint. They also provide a maximum of affordable and customizable design options. The two shops (one in Brick Lane, one in Battersea Park) don’t warehouse any stock; all pieces are built to order and to spec from sustainably sourced, FSC-certified birch laminate and are available in four standard finishes. The resulting degree of control that customers have over their orders is particularly appealing: we had our own little table built to fit an awkwardly-proportioned window alcove—now the best seat in the house.

Clockwise from top left: Unto This Last Spline chair, Triangle table, Norma chair, and Round table

(Postcard) From: Tel Aviv » Doctor’s Orders!

From: Tel Aviv » Alon Livne