Vindel
ChairAfter the Vindel — the river that was never dammed.
- Wood
- Oiled oak seat, turned birch legs
- Size
- 46 × 52 × 78 cm · seat height 45
- Price
- 9 800 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — six weeks
Umeå, Sweden — est. 1954
Eight pieces, made slowly.
We are a joinery workshop on the Ume river. We build furniture when you order it, from trees we can name, and we would rather make one chair well than a hundred quickly. Every piece is drawn here exactly as it is built — part by part.
01The pieces
Each one named after a place.
Rivers that were never dammed, parks where the pines are older than the country's borders. Hover over a drawing — or press exploded view — to see how a piece comes apart, because everything we make is meant to come apart, and be repaired, and go back together.
Sarek
DaybedAfter the park with no roads and no marked trails.
- Wood
- Soaped ash frame, needled wool cushion
- Size
- 190 × 80 × 34 cm
- Price
- 26 400 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — eight weeks
Abisko
Shelf systemAfter the valley where the sky stays clear.
- Wood
- Drilled birch uprights, oak shelves on pegs
- Size
- 90 × 30 × 210 cm · shelves move freely
- Price
- 17 900 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — seven weeks
Råne
Floor lampAfter the quiet river valley east of the mountains.
- Wood
- Birch stem turned in one piece, oak base
- Size
- Ø 34 cm · height 148 cm
- Price
- 6 900 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — five weeks
Lule
Dining tableAfter the river that carries the timber down to the sea.
- Wood
- Solid oak throughout, smoked-oak wedge keys
- Size
- 220 × 90 × 73 cm · seats eight
- Price
- 34 000 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — nine weeks
Kalix
StoolAfter the river where the whitefish roe comes from.
- Wood
- Oiled oak seat, birch legs, wedged through
- Size
- Ø 36 cm · height 45 cm
- Price
- 3 600 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — four weeks
Muddus
BenchAfter the park where the old pines carry fire scars from 1655.
- Wood
- Slow-grown Norrland pine, soap-scrubbed
- Size
- 160 × 38 × 45 cm
- Price
- 8 400 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — five weeks
Torne
Wall mirrorAfter the border river — half Swedish, half Finnish, wholly itself.
- Wood
- Steam-bent birch, bridle-leather strap, oak peg
- Size
- Ø 60 cm · glass 4 mm
- Price
- 4 900 kr
- Lead
- Made when ordered — four weeks
02Materials
Four woods. All of them named, none of them stained.
We buy whole logs from thinning cuts inside Västerbotten and Norrbotten counties, saw them ourselves, and dry them for two winters in the loft. Offcuts heat the workshop. Sawdust beds the neighbour's horses. Nothing is stained, so nothing can pretend.
Oak ek
Heavy, tannic, patient. We quarter-saw it so the boards stay flat for the next fifty years, not the next five.
Birch björk
Pale and tight-grained, cut within forty kilometres of the workshop. It turns beautifully and takes soap like linen.
Ash ask
Springy and dead straight — the wood of axe handles and sled runners. It forgives daily life better than anything we know.
Pine furu
Slow-grown Norrland pine — grown slowly enough that you can count the winters. It dents, softens, and yellows honestly.
03The workshop
A boat shed on the Ume river.
Gunnar Ehrling was a boat joiner who ran out of boats. In 1954 he swept the shavings out of a shed by the Ume river, built himself a bench, and started making chairs with the same joints he had used for hulls — joints that expect water, movement, and fifty years of use.
Three generations later we are six people in the same shed, with better windows. The catalogue has been eight pieces since 1989, and it will stay eight. When a new design earns its place, an old one must retire — it has happened twice.
We don't keep stock. Your piece is started when you order it, which is why it takes six weeks, and why it is exactly the wood, the oil, and the size we agreed. Slowness here is not a style. It is just how long the work takes.
- 1954
Gunnar Ehrling opens the workshop in a former boat shed. One bench, two apprentices, a stove.
- 1961
The first Vindel chair. Gunnar makes fourteen. Twelve are still in use; we know where.
- 1978
The big lathe arrives from a closed shipyard in Härnösand. Every leg since has been turned on it.
- 1989
Margit Ehrling takes over from her father and retires the catalogue to eight pieces. “Fewer, better, forever.”
- 2007
The kiln is converted to burn workshop offcuts. The oil radiators are given away, gladly.
- 2019
Third generation: Jonas and Elin. Still six people. Still eight pieces. Still six weeks.
04Care
As printed on the card packed with every piece.
Care
Norrland · Umeå · read once a year
Oiled oak & ash
Wipe with a cloth wrung out in warm water. Once a year, a little cold-pressed linseed oil on a rag, worked in with the grain. Lay the rag flat outdoors afterwards — oiled rags folded up can self-ignite, and we would rather you didn't find that out.
Soaped birch & pine
Scrub along the grain with natural soap flakes in lukewarm water. The wood will lighten and dry matte, like a scrubbed kitchen table — which is the point.
Wool & linen
Air, don't wash. Brush crumbs out with a stiff brush. Spots: cold water, patience, no rubbing.
Dents are memory, not damage. When in doubt, write to us — repairs are free for the first owner, forever.
05Enquire
There is no cart.
Write to us instead. Tell us which piece, which wood, and where it is going — a landing, a kitchen, a reading corner. We answer within two days, usually sooner, and always a person. Your piece is started the week we agree, and finished six weeks later, give or take a hard winter.
Write to the workshophej@norrland.se · Strandvägen 3, Umeå · Thursdays the workshop is open to visitors, 14–18