When two design
worlds collide

Explore a furniture affair that’s anything but ordinary.

There are some collaborations people find questionable, others feel inevitable. Angel O’Donnell for Julian Chichester is most certainly the latter.

For years, we’ve been quietly weaving Julian Chichester’s furniture into our projects – tweaking dimensions, experimenting with finishes, pushing each design a little further. Eventually, after a few persuasive glasses of vino, the conversation shifted from “how do we adapt this?” to “What would we create if we started from scratch?”

The collaboration that followed is a mind-meld of two brands that both prefer blank slates to house styles. There are no recycled ideas here, just fresh forms and finishes inspired by a shared love of experimentation, craftsmanship and “let’s just give it a go.”

A journey that started in Vietnam

Every collection needs a starting point. This one began in Vietnam, whose artistry, rituals and rich visual language became a through-line for the whole range. Craftsmanship and winding temple motifs threaded in the details: intricate marquetry, unexpected surface treatments, and a red lacquer line that curls around each piece like a ribbon.

Architecture joined the conversation early on too. Brutalism, Postmodernism, cantilevers – all those charismatic forms and gravity-defying structures left their imprint on the silhouettes.

Craft as storyline, not soundbite

Look closely and the collection reads like a craft anthology. Some pieces are softened by gently rippling gesso, adding tactility and a sense of calm that plays against the precision of marquetry and the assertiveness of those lacquered lines.

This is furniture for aesthetes and collectors, for those who want design with storytelling baked into every curve and contour. Behind the scenes, that storytelling is written in hours: the centuries-old craft of marquetry demands that each fragment of veneer be hand-picked for colour and grain, then fitted together with jigsaw-puzzle accuracy – a process that can take between 40 and 60 hours per square metre.

Lacquer adds its own technical choreography. Multiple coats are brushed on in wafer-thin layers, left to cure, then sanded back before the next is applied, gradually building an elegantly fluid red line that’s irresistible to trace with your fingertips.

Meet Carlton

This drinks cabinet is polished and urbane – the natural host. Its asymmetrical form nods to Art Deco medicine cupboards and decorative armoires, while Vietnamese craft traditions influence the marquetry and lacquer that wrap around its doors. Open them and there’s the quiet hush of a well-time entrance, followed by a bar setup that exudes a little old-school glamour.

D’Arblay has arrived

Tiered tabletops in gently rippling gesso and geometric marquetry reference the rebellious, often whimsical spirit of postmodern architecture, while the red lacquer motif sweeps across its surfaces like a garland. By day, it hosts art books and morning coffee, by night, candlelit conversations and punchlines.

Hello, Lindford

Lean, discreet and cantilevered on a rock-like resin foot, the Lindford console seems to defy gravity. Ed O’Donnell’s long-standing fascination with cantilevered structures is resolved here in a piece that is both elegantly restrained and structurally audacious.

Welcome Kingly

Inspired by the bold geometry and unflinching clarity of brutalist architecture, Kingly’s rectilinear form rests on a resin ‘rock’ that’s both structural and ornamental. The doors and carcass are a canvas for Vietnamese-influenced marquetry, gesso and that looping lacquered line, creating a graphic, story-rich centrepiece.

A design lover’s must-have

What unites these pieces is not just an aesthetic, but an attitude – a belief that materials, techniques and architectural ideas can be stretched, spliced and reimagined without losing their integrity.

In an age of mass production, this capsule stands as a reminder that there is still value in pieces that take time – in furniture where the story is not an afterthought, but the starting point.