Saint Objets is a French furniture studio founded in Dubai by Sarah Koben.
The furniture is drawn in Paris and made to order in the Emirates. Each piece begins with the room: its scale, its light and the way it will be lived in.
A sofa may need another metre. A bed may need less height. A chair may need a different fabric because the light changes at four in the afternoon.
Made to order means the room gets the final word.
The founder.
Sarah Koben was born in Normandy and trained in Paris. She worked in luxury fashion and creative direction before turning to furniture.
She draws each piece. The drawing goes to the workshop, where the frame is built and the proportions are tested at full scale before the fabric is cut. The spring seat offered on the sofas and armchairs was developed and prototyped in the studio.
Her references are mid-century lounge chairs and low sofas, and the rooms of the 1970s. It shows in the collection: backs that wrap around the seat, seats set close to the floor, upholstery that continues over the legs.
Made to order in the UAE.
The workshop is in the Emirates, and nothing is made for stock. A piece is cut when it is ordered, in the fabric chosen for it, at the dimensions agreed on the drawing.
Working this close to the workshop means a fabric sample can be sent to the room and looked at in its own light, and a curve or a seat depth can still be corrected on the frame. The waste is smaller: no unsold pieces, no fabric cut for a sofa nobody ordered.
See the pieces at Decoroom, Art of Living Mall, Dubai, open now. A second showroom at Decoroom, Dubai Hills Mall, Gate 4, opens soon. The studio in Dubai Design District receives clients by appointment. How a commission works.
