The Jouch
$4,280
Three-seat sofa · 41 pairs · Kiln-dried ash frame
Studio photography for this piece is in production.
Living
The Jottoman
The piece where we stopped hiding the waistband.
$980
Our least expensive object, and our most sold.
Early prototypes cut around the waistband, because a waistband is the stiffest and least cooperative part of a pair of jeans. The Jottoman keeps it. Belt loops, rivets, brand patches, and the original buttonholes all sit on the outside of the piece, which turned out to be the point rather than a compromise.
Development
The equator
Every soft pouf on the market collapses into a beanbag within about a year, and ours did too for the first three prototypes. The fix was not more filling or a stiffer shell — it was ringing fourteen original waistbands around the circumference to form a rigid equator. We had been cutting the waistbands off because they were difficult to work with. It turned out the difficult part was the structural part, which is a lesson we have since applied to three other products.
- 3 Prototypes that became beanbags
- 14 Waistbands in the equator
- 0 Waistbands now discarded
On keeping the labels
We are often asked whether leaving another maker’s patch on the outside of our own product is a mistake. It is not. Every Jottoman is built from garments that were made by someone else, worn out by someone else, and given a second use by us. Removing the evidence of that would make the piece a fabrication rather than a reclamation.
It also solves a structural problem. Fourteen waistbands ringed around a pouf give it a rigid equator, which is why the Jottoman holds its shape under a seated adult while filled with buckwheat, and why the cheaper way of doing this collapses into a beanbag within a year.
In the crate
- A canvas underliner, replaceable, with a top-up port
- Two litres of spare buckwheat hull
- A stitched log card recording each donor garment
- Lifetime re-fill at cost
- A handle. We tried; it ruined the equator.
- Any guarantee about which brand patches you receive.
Ownership
Care
- Top up the buckwheat annually through the port. It compacts.
- Roll it rather than lifting it. Thirty-one pounds is more than it looks.
- Vacuum around the belt loops, where dust collects first.
- Spot-clean only. The underliner is the washable part.
Questions we are asked
Before you commit
Can I choose which labels appear?
No. Garments are graded by wash and weight, not by brand, and we will not sort a run to produce a particular patch. What arrives is what your forty-pair batch contained.
Is it comfortable to sit on?
For about twenty minutes. It is a footstool that will take a guest, not a chair.
Why buckwheat?
It holds a compression set the way foam does not, so the Jottoman keeps the dent you left in it rather than springing back. Owners either love this immediately or ask about it once and then stop noticing.
Will the dog claim it?
Yes. We have not encountered an exception. The Jottoman sits at the height of most medium dogs and holds warmth for about forty minutes, and we regard the outcome as settled.
Pairs with
The rest of the room
The Joffee Table
$2,190
Woven low table · 26 pairs · Blackened steel base
Jillows
$180 / pair
Decorative cushions · 3 pairs · Dummy rivets throughout