This year, Ethnicraft celebrates thirty years of making furniture the way we wish all furniture were made: from honest materials, with patience, and with genuine respect for craft.
At Lekker Home, we have had the pleasure of carrying Ethnicraft's work for twenty-four of those thirty years. We wanted to mark the milestone the best way we know how: by telling the story of a brand we have admired from the start.
From a single shipping container in 1995 to one of the most respected names in contemporary design, here is a look at where Ethnicraft came from, the designers who shape its vision, the ateliers behind every piece, and the future the brand is building.
The Ethnicraft Approach
Thirty Years of Learning
Ethnicraft's approach begins with the material. For more than thirty years, the brand has worked closely with wood, learning through experience how it behaves, evolves, and endures over time. Across its workshops and production facilities, many hands contribute to every piece, shaping, refining, and assembling with care.
By combining enduring craftsmanship with evolving techniques, Ethnicraft creates furniture that brings together honest materials, considered simplicity, and lasting quality. Its collections return to the essence of what the brand believes is good design: pieces full of character, made from quality materials that age beautifully.
How It Began
One Single Container
One single container full of decorative items from Indonesia. That is how the Ethnicraft story began. In 1995, co-founder Philippe Delaisse brought back furniture and interior accessories from his travels in Indonesia to sell at home in Antwerp. Soon he joined forces with long-time friend Benoit Loos, and the two began importing one container every few months.
One year later, clients were waiting at the Antwerp docks, numbered ticket in hand, to buy the one special item they coveted. The pair quickly decided to design and produce their own furniture, setting up a first manufacturing site in Indonesia.
Today, outstanding craftsmanship sits at the core of the brand, and behind the simplicity of its pieces lies a constant drive for innovation. Incorporating advanced techniques into the process of creation, each new design is revised and reworked to the last detail.
Thank you for making us part of the stories of your life.
Benoit Loos & Philippe Delaisse, Ethnicraft Co-Founders
The Makers Behind the Work
Ethnicraft's Designers
Alongside its main designer, Alain van Havre, Ethnicraft collaborates with a close community of makers recognized for their distinct aesthetic and command of both current and traditional techniques. That collaboration is part of what gives each Ethnicraft piece its quality and authenticity.
Alain van Havre
Deeply connected to his environment and passionate about natural materials, Alain has developed an exceptional expertise for woodworking. Over the years, he has created his own visual language centered around form, best described in collections such as the Bok, Graphic, PI, and Stairs. He believes that for someone to connect with a design, it is important to bring it closer to nature. Over the past twenty years, Alain has played a pivotal role in shaping the Ethnicraft designs we know and love today.
Jacques Deneef
Jacques Deneef is an Antwerp-based designer with a fascination for basic materials such as glass, wood, leather, paper, and wax. After entering the world of art via his talents in oil and acrylic painting, he now focuses his time on giving used objects new leases of life, alongside design development in sectors such as jewelry, lighting, textile, furniture, and decoration. In offering objects a new existence, Jacques believes they are transformed into something new, made useful in some other way, ultimately resolving into their final destination: a work of art.
Dawn Sweitzer
An overflow of creative energy and a profound interest in the world of craftsmanship is what jump-started Dawn Sweitzer's journey as an artist. Her works are expressions based on travel, enriching cultures, textures within the landscape, photography, food, and fashion. There is no fixed formula to how designs are conceived; they blend ideas and reference vintage alongside modern. Within her beautiful North Carolina studio, Dawn works, plays, and discovers in a variety of media: paint, woven textile, mirror and glass, home accessories, and decorations.
Paul Delaisse
For Paul Delaisse, design is a balance of form, function, and materiality. With over twenty-five years of experience, his work is deeply rooted in a dedication to the creative process, spanning from the initial concept to intricate craftsmanship and the meticulous production of each piece. He embraces the unique qualities of each material, whether by accepting its inherent nature or challenging its potential. His enthusiasm spans case goods and upholstered pieces, and he has collaborated with high-end brands, architects, and interior designers to bring his vision to life.
Where It Is Made
Ateliers in the Spotlight
Ethnicraft works with four manufacturing sites and six craft ateliers. Here is a closer look at where its products are made and finished by hand, each one giving the pieces their individual character.
Ethnicraft Atelier, Indonesia
The intelligence of the hand
Connecting great design with the intelligence of the hand, authentic craftsmanship has been a cornerstone for Ethnicraft since the very beginning. As with the workshops of the masters before them, every collection in this specialized atelier is the result of a meticulous process: from design concepts, to product development, to the artisans who bring the original drawings to life. While conserving and fostering traditional crafting methods, the team works to make the most of each piece, with respect for wood as a precious resource.
Collaboration with Ashtari Carpets
One hundred and fifty years of knowledge
With an obsession for the character of hand-spun wool, family-owned Ashtari form the connection between past and present, craftsmanship and aesthetic, with their Persian carpets. Each creation carries traditional techniques from more than 150 years of family knowledge, delivering a richness of color, a variety of spectacular artistic patterns, and quality of design. Today, with a desire to become a curator of original and extraordinary rug designs, Ashtari specialize in modern decorative carpets and select rare antique carpets, often partnering with designers, artists, architects, and textile designers. Ethnicraft's rug collection has been created in collaboration with Ashtari.
Minerals Workshop, Serbia
Shaped by hand, inspired by nature
A blend of innovation and traditional techniques, metals and earthy pigments: this is how Ethnicraft's first Minerals collection was born. Relying on some of the oldest artistic methods and ancestral techniques, these unique pieces are created and shaped by hand. In a dedicated Serbian workshop, local talents are trained to work with natural materials and mineral powders. Each item and pattern is truly distinct, inspired by the lines and shapes found in nature such as stones, earth, and bark.
Looking Ahead
A Commitment to Sustainability
With full control over the redesign, production, distribution, refurbishing, and recycling of its furniture, Ethnicraft is in a unique position to contribute to a more sustainable industry. The brand believes durability and sustainability start with choosing the right quality material, and wooden products are particularly suited to refurbishment.
For the next twenty-five years, Ethnicraft is developing a new vision for sustainability built on designing for circularity and lengthening product lifespans. It is a long, ambitious, and admittedly imperfect process, one in which every small step counts as much as the big decisions. The ultimate noble and renewable material, its wood is sourced from responsibly and carefully managed forests.
From All of Us at Lekker Home
Here's to the Next Chapter
Explore the Ethnicraft pieces we carry at Lekker Home, from dining and storage to seating and rugs. And if you would like a hand bringing them into your space, our design team is always happy to help.
