L'Écrin, a club armchair on a solid wood plinth, spring seat fitted as standard, upholstered in Pierre Frey BOHEME, reference F3978002, colourway QUARTZ. Made to order in the Emirates, ten to thirty days.
See L'Écrin in Pierre FreyMost conversations about a designer fabric begin and end with the fabric. In an atelier they begin with the frame, because a fabric does not exist until something holds it. A pattern with a 43 cm vertical repeat behaves one way on a squared club volume and another way on a curved, buttoned or heavily piped one. L'Écrin was drawn as a continuous block long before Pierre Frey was specified on it, and that geometry is the reason the wave of BOHEME reads across the chair instead of breaking up on it. This page is about the object, not the roll.
A Pierre Frey armchair in Dubai starts with the frame. L'Écrin is a club armchair on a solid wood plinth with a spring seat fitted as standard, upholstered in Pierre Frey BOHEME, reference F3978002, colourway QUARTZ, a ciselé cotton velvet. It is made to order in the Emirates, ten to thirty days, price on request.
A chair is a shape that has to survive being covered.
Sarah Koben, Founder and Creative Director, Saint Objets
Everything on this chair was decided before the fabric arrived: the height at which the arm meets the back, the flatness of the outside faces, the depth of the plinth, the springs under the seat. Those decisions are what a Pierre Frey reference lands on. Come and sit in it at Decoroom, Art of Living Mall, where you can walk in and the design consultation is complimentary, or at the studio in Dubai Design District by appointment.
WhatsApp the studioL'Écrin is a club armchair, which in the strict sense means a low, deep, enclosed seat with the arms at back height and the volume closed on every outside face. The proportion is squared rather than rounded. The outside back is a single flat plane, the outside arms are two more, and the front of the plinth is a fourth. What matters for upholstery is that these are large, uninterrupted surfaces. A frame with the same seat dimensions but a rolled arm and a scrolled back would present the same fabric as a series of short, curved, unrelated pieces. Geometry is not styling here, it is the thing that decides how a fabric can be cut.
A straight repeat of 43 cm vertically and 34 cm horizontally is a large repeat by upholstery standards. On BOHEME, that repeat carries a wave, and a wave is unforgiving because the eye follows it and notices where it stops. On L'Écrin the cutter can set a full vertical repeat on the inside back, let the next one fall on the seat platform, and align the horizontal repeat so the motif crosses the arm at the same point on the left and the right. This is what is meant by cutting to the match, panel by panel, rather than simply cutting enough metres. It is slower, it is done by hand, and it is the reason the fabric is metered piece by piece.
The plinth is solid wood and it does more than raise the chair. Visually it closes the bottom of the volume, so the upholstery reads as a block set on a base instead of a body balanced on four points. Practically it means there is no leg junction where the fabric has to be notched, folded or stopped, which on a patterned fabric is where the match usually breaks. It also gives the chair a defined shadow at the floor, which in a villa with pale stone or a large format tile keeps the volume seated rather than hovering. On L'Écrin that base is part of the drawing, not a detail added underneath it once the shape was finished.
The spring seat is fitted as standard on L'Écrin, not offered as an upgrade. A sprung platform means the load of a body is taken first by the suspension and only then by the foam, so the cushion is not doing structural work it was never designed to do. Over years, that is the difference between a seat that keeps a flat face and one that dishes in the middle. It matters more, not less, under a heavy fabric. BOHEME weighs 1242 g per linear metre, and a dense velvet shows a sagging seat immediately, because the pile catches light differently wherever the surface stops being flat.
Ciselé is the word for what has been done to this velvet. The pattern is not printed on the surface and it is not woven in contrasting colours. It is cut into the pile itself, so the design exists as a difference in height between cut and uncut areas. The composition is 73% cotton and 27% viscose, with a 100% cotton pile. On a squared frame this is worth understanding, because the relief only declares itself when light travels across a flat plane at a low angle. On the outside back of L'Écrin, the largest uninterrupted panel on the chair, the wave appears and disappears as you walk past it. A photograph flattens that completely, which is why we keep the reference in the studio to be seen against the piece.
An armchair does not wear evenly, and that is the honest way to read a rub count. The arm tops, the front edge of the seat and the point where a shoulder meets the inside back take almost all of the movement, while the outside faces take almost none. Pierre Frey publishes BOHEME at 85,000 Martindale cycles and rates it for intensive upholstery. It also passes the BS 5852 cigarette and match test. Those are the manufacturer's figures and they are the ones we will print. There is no fade rating and no stain claim documented for this fabric, so we do not state one. The geometry decides the rest: on L'Écrin the panels that take the movement are the smallest ones on the chair, and the large flat faces that carry the pattern are the faces nobody touches.
It is an indoor fabric and we place it as one. In a Dubai apartment or villa, that means siting the chair out of direct sun, away from a west facing glass wall in the afternoon, and not treating it as a terrace piece. A cut cotton pile that dense is straightforward to keep if it is kept: brush in the direction of the pile, lift dust rather than rubbing it in, and let the studio look at anything that goes wrong before a cleaner does. We would rather say this plainly on the page than let a buyer discover it after a summer. If the room is a hard light room, we will steer you towards a different reference and say why.
Which of our other armchairs can take a Pierre Frey fabric is a question about the frame, not about permission. Frames with large flat panels and few seams carry large repeats such as BOHEME. Frames with tight curves, buttoning, deep piping or narrow segmented backs are better in a plain velvet, a small scale weave or a textured fabric with no motif, because a 43 cm wave broken into short disconnected pieces stops being the pattern you fell in love with in the folder. The seam plan, not the taste, is what settles it. Send us the reference number you have chosen and the frame you want, and we will tell you before you commit whether the two belong together.
The Pierre Frey edition of L'Écrin is price on request, while the same chair in Aubergine mohair or Ivoire chenille is published at price on request. The difference is not a mystery, it is arithmetic. A plain fabric is cut to a fixed plan. A 43 cm repeat is cut to a match, and the metreage depends on how the motif falls on that particular frame. So we meter the fabric against the cut plan, then quote, and you see the metreage alongside the price rather than a rounded figure. Production runs ten to thirty days once the fabric is in the atelier, and delivery and assembly within Dubai are complimentary on orders above AED 4,000.
Written by the Saint Objets studio. Message the studio on WhatsApp or see the Pierre Frey collection.
Because the frame is squared and closed. The outside back, the two outside arms and the plinth front are large flat planes with few seams, so a 43 cm vertical repeat can be placed whole rather than fragmented. The wave crosses the chair intact, and the motif can be aligned at the same point on the left and right arm.
It is fitted as standard on L'Écrin, at no extra cost. A sprung platform takes the load first, so the foam cushion is not carrying structural work. The seat keeps a flat face over years instead of dishing in the middle. Under a dense velvet this matters visually as well as physically, because a flat surface keeps the pile reading evenly.
Yes. Any frame in our armchair line can be specified in a Pierre Frey reference. We will tell you whether the geometry suits the fabric: squared, panelled frames carry large repeats well, while tightly curved, buttoned or heavily piped frames are better in a plain velvet or a small scale weave. Send the reference number and the frame you want.
Because BOHEME has a 43 cm vertical and 34 cm horizontal straight repeat, so the fabric is cut to the match and metered piece by piece against the cut plan for that frame. We meter it, then quote, and you see the metreage alongside the price. The same chair in Aubergine mohair or Ivoire chenille is published at price on request.
Yes, that is the whole point of cutting to the match. The motif is centred on the inside back, picked up on the seat, and aligned so it crosses the left and right arm at the same height. It is done panel by panel by hand in the atelier, which is why the metreage is established before a price is given.
Ciselé means the pattern is cut into the pile itself, as a difference in height between cut and uncut areas, rather than printed or woven in contrasting colours. BOHEME is 73% cotton and 27% viscose with a 100% cotton pile. A photograph flattens the relief almost entirely. We keep the reference in the studio so it can be seen against the piece.
The edition of L'Écrin is upholstered in colourway QUARTZ, reference F3978002. Pierre Frey also weaves BOHEME in Fluorite 003 and Agate 004. If you want the chair in one of those, tell us which, and the same cut to the match approach applies. The reference is ordered from the house in Paris and the frame is our own.
Production is ten to thirty days once the fabric is in the atelier. Delivery and assembly within Dubai are complimentary on orders above AED 4,000. You can see and sit in the chair at Decoroom, Art of Living Mall, walk in, with a complimentary design consultation, or at our Dubai Design District studio by appointment. You can also reach the studio on WhatsApp.