BRAVO BENCH

Bravo is the upholstered bench with curved sides and leather straps worked across it. 220 × 80 × 45 cm — the same footprint as Fiona and Felix, in the most hand-worked of the three treatments.

Curved sides

A curved upholstered end is where upholstery stops being a cover and becomes shaping. The padding has to be built up to the curve and the material has to be eased around it without a gather, a pleat or a flat spot — on a straight-sided bench none of that arises. It is also the part that shows first if it is done badly, because a curve catches the light along its whole length.

The leather straps

The straps are the drawing on the piece: every one the same width, set at the same spacing, running straight over a padded surface that moves under the hand as you work. Hide stretches in one direction and not the other, so each strap has to be cut with that in mind — which is why they are cut and set out before any are fitted rather than adjusted afterwards.

80 cm deep, 45 cm high

Twice the depth of an ordinary bench, so you sit back on it; 45 cm is chair height, so it also works at a dining table. Both numbers mean it needs real floor — in a hall under about 1.6 m clear it will not sit comfortably whatever its length.

Materials and sizes

220 × 80 × 45 cm, customisable on request. Any of seventy-six leather shades across twelve families, or fabric; your own fabric (COM) is accepted, and the hide can be matched to a sofa or a bed headboard in the same room, from the same batch. Genuine leather only; no faux leather is used in any Sitdesign product. Handcrafted in our Istanbul workshop.

Where it belongs

The foot of a bed, a dressing room, an entrance hall, a hotel lobby, a dining table. In a room that already has a leather sofa or a leather headboard, it is the piece that ties the scheme together.