i.
Drawings before deposit
No client pays us until they have received scaled drawings, fabric schedule and a written timeline. Two free revisions are standard.
Our story
From one railway arch to a quiet trade reputation.
The atelier opened in 1992 in a single railway arch off Shoreditch High Street. Founder Idris Movarian had spent ten years on the bench at a Wandsworth re-upholsterer, and started Movarix with three frames, a domestic sewing machine and an order book of friends-of-friends.
Thirty-four years on, the workshop occupies two adjacent arches with a small office mezzanine above. The bench has grown to five upholsterers and two seamstresses; the frames are now built in a kiln-dried timber yard outside Leighton Buzzard to our exact drawings. What has not changed is the production cap: twelve frames a week, no more.
That cap is the thing. Most of the workshops we admire have either grown into a factory or stayed at one bench forever. We chose the smallest size that supports a real range of work — a single armchair for a Hampstead townhouse on Monday, twenty banquettes for a Brighton restaurant on Tuesday — without compromising on the patience that makes a piece last.
1992
Founded
2,400+
Pieces built
12
Frames a week
34
Years at one bench
What we believe
Furniture you do not need to think about.
Good upholstery is invisible. You sit on it for ten years and never wonder whether it will hold. The work that makes that possible is mostly dull — selecting timber that has dried at the right rate, tying springs at the right tension, finishing seams that will outlive the cushion. We take that work seriously so the piece, eventually, does not ask for any of your attention.
Working methods
Six standards we keep without exception.
ii.
Frames you can stand on
Beech and birch ply, glued and dowelled. Every join is double-checked before springing — this is what the lifetime guarantee is built on.
iii.
Open-door workshop
If you are in London during the build, you are welcome to sit on the calico mock-up before the fabric goes on. Most clients take us up on it.
iv.
Fabric the way it should be cut
Patterned fabrics are pattern-matched on the seat, the back and the arms — not just the front. It is fiddly. It is also the thing that lifts a sofa from acceptable to right.
v.
Records kept forever
Every build has a paper file with frame drawings, fabric supplier, batch number and metreage. Pieces from the 1990s come back for refurbishing on the same paperwork.
vi.
Honest about lead times
If a fabric is on a long lead from the mill, you will hear about it before signing. We have never quietly missed a delivery date in print, and we are not about to start.
Come and see how a Movarix piece is built.
The Shoreditch workshop is open by appointment Tuesday to Saturday. Tea, biscuits, frames-in-progress and zero sales pressure.
Arrange a workshop visit