The story
Furniture is a promise about the future.
A sofa says this room will still be worth sitting in years from now. A table says people will keep gathering here. We started Maren Home because too much furniture breaks that promise on purpose: priced to be replaced, built to be forgotten. Ours is drawn to be lived with.
Where it started
One room, seven pieces
The first Maren pieces were drawn in the winter of 2019 for a one-room cabin north of Toronto: a bed, a table, two chairs, a bench, a shelf and a stool. When one room has to hold your whole life, every centimetre is an argument. So every piece was drawn full-size on the floor before a single board was cut.
That habit never left. The catalogue is still small on purpose, and nothing joins it until it has lived in one of our own homes for a season.
Materials
Timber you can repair at home
Our timber is white oak, walnut and ash from managed North American forests. It is kiln-dried, joined with dowels, dovetails and box joints, and finished with a hardwax oil you can sand back and re-oil yourself. A scratch is an afternoon's job, not a reason to replace the table.
Our upholstery wools are woven by small mills and independent makers we visit, buy from directly, and credit by name on the cutting ticket sewn into every cover. When you ask where something comes from, the answer is a person, not a paragraph.
What we hold to
Four rules we don't bend
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01
Drawn before it's built
Every piece starts as a full-size drawing on the studio floor. You get that drawing too, on its page and in the box.
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02
Repairable on purpose
Covers come off, oiled tops sand back, and every structural part can be ordered on its own for as long as we make the piece.
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03
Sources we can name
Timber from managed North American forests. Wool from small mills and weavers we buy from directly.
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04
Small on purpose
Twenty pieces, no filler. Nothing joins the line until it has lived in one of our own homes for a season.
The people
Who makes it
Two small workshops and a handful of weavers. Few enough hands that a question about your sofa reaches the person who built it.
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Ines Varga
Frame shop lead
Ines runs the frame shop, where every chair and table is cut, joined and checked against its drawing before it gets a finish.
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Dana Okafor
Upholstery room
Dana cuts and sews every cover, then signs the ticket inside it. If a cover ever needs replacing, her pattern is on file.
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Our weaving partners
Wool and cloth
Small mills and independent weavers we visit and buy from directly. Their names are printed on the ticket sewn into each cover.
The point of it
Fewer things, kept longer
The objects that last in a home, like the teapot with the chipped lid or the lamp nobody remembers buying, last because they earn their space every day. We want our furniture judged the same way: not by how it photographs on day one, but by whether anyone would give it up in year ten.
That's why covers are removable, finishes are repairable, and every structural part can be re-ordered on its own for as long as we make the piece.
The drawing
Why every piece ships with its drawing
Every Maren product page carries a front view drawn to true proportion from the piece's real dimensions, and a printed copy comes in the box. Partly it's practical: you can tape it to the wall and see the piece before it arrives. Mostly it's a statement of terms. We'd rather you measure twice and buy once.
- Founded
- 2019
- Pieces in the line
- 20
- Partner workshops
- 2
- Return window
- 30 days