It may have escaped your notice, but we are trying to communicate how fun and special it is to work here. So, I thought it might be a good idea to highlight a small detail. The chosen subject is the “oak double pull-out drawer runner”. I came up with the runner years ago, for the “new kitchen.” The base of the kitchen is made of oak and looks a lot like the kitchen I made in Mavaleix. This one is almost completely made of oak (also the runners.) The runners slide like a charm. And if they don’t, which is pretty much never, all you have to do is apply some candle wax and away you go. If anything breaks, you can easily replace a component and it will last for another hundred years. All very modern, because it’s repairable, and old fashioned at the same time, because almost everything used to be repairable. I don’t think that’s because of the products themselves, but it has more to do with the mindset; sitting behind a typewriter with two left hands has long been considered ideal work for the mediocre.
The oak double pull-out wooden runner really is modern because the drawer opens all the way out. When you open and close the drawer, you hear a wonderful sound as the middle part of the runner is pulled out. I think the runner would be quite affordable if it was made in very large quantities. But we don’t do that, so the runner is only used in our fanciest products for the time being. We are currently making the third and last old oak cabinet (no more wood). The runner is incorporated into it, and the tilting system behind a hidden handle is equally crazy. The scrap wood cabinet I designed in 1989 already had homemade hinges and handles because no standard products were suitable. Since then, we’ve made the lion’s share of our fittings ourselves. Practice makes perfect, and we now make our very own exclusive high-end low-tech fittings.
The past few weeks have been very busy, socially. More than once, I’ve enthusiastically explained to people how fantastic the runner is, and especially that we make it ourselves. I jokingly commented that I should apply for a patent! But there’s no point anymore. With this post, the wooden double pull-out drawer runner has been introduced to the world!
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