An all-British furniture collection bringing crafted comfort to our coffee breaks

We're all at it: side-eyeing the latest AI tool that we suspect is out to take our livelihood. Look at it, all hard and mean and emotionless, promising ruthless efficiency and prompt delivery. Surely it can’t replace me? I can do all that with feeling, a smile and a coffee round thrown in! And therein lies our salvation: our humanity, our emotional intelligence, our soft skills. Why mention it? Because if soft skills are what we bring, soft furniture is what we need to nurture those invaluable attributes in the work environment.

Soft, beckoning breakout zones have become an essential part of office design - some might say since lockdowns gave us a taste for comfortable conferencing. More likely, however, as is the case for so many evolutionary trends during the pandemic, it is an acceleration of events underway; namely, the growing need to accommodate all-important social interaction in the workplace. For many office furniture makers, it has meant a dash to boost portfolios with the makings of homely comfort: seating, tables and storage with gentle edges, natural materials and upholstery. For the UK’s Boss Design, it has simply meant pulling out its trump card: the sub-brand, Lyndon.

Cheltenham-based Lyndon has, in fact, been doing its cosy contract thing for over 40 years. It was established by Brian Murray and Richard Pugh in 1982 to serve the hospitality industries. Brian Murray left the business in 1983 to start Boss Design, but he acquired Lyndon again in 2010 and merged the collection with the Boss portfolio. Today, it is relaunching under its own banner once more, flaunting its iconic timeless pieces that seem more timely now than ever, and bringing in additional pieces that complement its enduring aesthetics.

Setting its sights not only on hospitality venues but now also on those office soft zones, Lyndon is developing into something quite special: a British-made collection of modern furniture designs, beautifully engineered at scale from responsibly sourced wood using a blend of traditional and 21st-century processes and bringing comfort, style and durability sustainably to the workplace.

As Ceri Lovett, Creative Director of Boss Design, explains, 'Our vision was to create a subtle design aesthetic that whispers of timeless simplicity. Cylindrical legs and cross rails that look like they’re turned the traditional way, but are actually precision-engineered using our five-axis CNC woodworking equipment. We use similarly advanced technology to machine the mortise, tenon and comb joints, which create smooth, organic transitions between the vertical and horizontal elements of the structure. The collection represents a softer, more tactile experience.'

Existing icons of the collection include the modular timber-framed Orten Sofa collection, designed by Mark Gabbertas, which has been a successful part of the portfolio for over 25 years, alongside Bodie lounge seating and the upholstered Isla dining/meeting chairs. Recently, three new pieces have landed - Katō seating, Mori tables and Kitt dining chairs. They shine a light on the brand’s woodworking and engineering expertise while evolving the line to serve the needs of social spaces with a softer aesthetic.

'With Katō, we wanted to produce a statement piece, so we began sketching ideas for a timber armchair with an exo-frame supporting an upholstered seat and back,' says in-house designer Phil Bennett. 'This would enable us to put as much wood on display as possible.' As for Mori, its soft, rounded wooden frame belies the hardiness of the veneer surface, while Kitt is a chair that is perfectly in sync with today’s craft-infused, informally formal dining environments. 'The form of the chair aims to find a considered combination of the precise and the fluid - a soft engineering, if you like,' says its designer Mark Gabbertas.

Lyndon’s furniture is already cushioning human interactions in airport lounges and car showrooms around the world - valued customers include BA (for its first-class lounges) and Jaguar. But we wouldn’t be surprised if you see Katō or Kitt coming to an office near you very soon, to interrupt the cold hard lines of technology and provide perfect-pitch sensory support for those all-important coffee breaks.

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