To us, there is something odd about rawness. Furniture made from thick wood and simple forms can appear solid and direct. Yet somehow, it can also feel familiar and comfortable.
Perhaps that familiarity begins with the material itself. As Soft Minimal suggests, the grain, knots, uneven colour and small irregularities of wood belong to patterns we already know from nature. In contrast to the smooth, controlled surfaces that surround much of daily life, wood remains varied. Its grain shifts across the surface, its texture changes beneath the hand and its appearance moves with the light. Even after it has been shaped into furniture, something of that natural familiarity may still be felt instinctively.
Research by Harumi Ikei, Chorong Song and Yoshifumi Miyazaki offers some support for this response. In a series of small experiments, participants sometimes showed physical responses associated with relaxation when looking at wooden objects or touching wood. These studies do not explain why wood may feel warm or familiar, but they suggest that its effect can begin before we consciously interpret it. One possible reading is that the variation we see and the texture we feel register at a bodily level, helping the material feel more comfortable and less distant.
That sense of comfort may also come from the way wood makes the passage of time visible. Its surface fades, gathers scratches and sometimes cracks, quietly tracing the same movement from growth towards ageing and decay that shapes the natural world. As Stillness suggests, there is a certain virtue in allowing these changes to remain. They remind us that ageing is not simply a departure from perfection, but part of the life of things. To recognise this can be relieving: the object comes to reflect the changing nature of life rather than resist it, and we no longer have to regard every change as a loss.
Simple forms can help emphasise these qualities. With little to distract from the material, the grain, weight, construction and gradual changes in the wood remain easy to notice. The design supports rather than obscures the material, keeping its familiarity and ageing central to how the furniture is experienced.
In the work of Vaarnii and Ishinomaki Laboratory, these qualities take different forms. Vaarnii uses Finnish pine in thick, substantial forms that allow the grain, knots and natural variation of the wood to remain prominent. The furniture has a strong physical presence, yet the visible irregularities of the material keep it from feeling cold or distant.
Ishinomaki Laboratory takes a lighter and more straightforward approach, using simple forms and clear construction to make furniture that feels easy to understand and ready for everyday use. Its directness gives the pieces a sense of ease rather than preciousness.
In different ways, both allow wood to remain recognisably wood. Vaarnii draws warmth from the physical presence and natural variation of pine, while Ishinomaki Laboratory finds it by using simple forms to highlight the visible construction and natural character of ordinary timber already familiar to us.
