Nothing at Multiform is ‘standard’. Each kitchen is unique and bespoke, right down to the tiniest detail. At our workshop in Kibæk our experienced cabinetmakers construct your new kitchen from scratch in authentic carpenter style. We sort all timber and veneer by hand. We make all drawers by hand. We still use dowels, pegs, dovetail joints and tongue and groove: simply because they last longer.
Multiform history
It all started in 1982 in a backyard at Number 47, Vestergade in Aarhus. Carsten Michelsen was working with his saw in the old workshop and shaped a door by hand, cut out of a single piece of wood. It was solid and perfectly square. The simplicity appealed to him. Here he had a simple building block, a timeless design and sterling craftsmanship that could last a lifetime – all in one.
At the heart of his toils in the workshop was an ambition to design a kitchen classic, which, on a par with the iconic furniture design of 1950s Denmark, could survive for generations: in terms of the quality of craftsmanship, the materials and the idiom. Ever since, the driving force behind Multiform has been a love of sound craftsmanship. This is the very essence of the exclusive kitchens, which are designed and manufactured in Denmark.
Form 1 is still a bestseller and, respecting the aesthetics of the original design, today Form 1 is available in a range of new woods – including genuine smoked oak. The smoked-oak doors are manufactured according to the original method. During the drying process, the European oak is treated with ammonia, which changes the colour of the wood. This lends the doors a beautiful, saturated, dark colour with a dark-brown to almost black shimmer. The doors are made of solid timber. The finest, hand-graded veneer is then applied, prior to coating it with a special, soft-feel varnish to achieve a stunning result. This detail places extremely high demands on the craftsmanship and the carefully selected veneer, guaranteeing the unique quality and finish, which are the principal features of Multiform’s exclusive kitchens.
Sound craftsmanship and new details
All Multiform kitchen drawers are handmade in our workshop in Kibæk according to classic cabinetmaker principles, with uncompromising quality and a profound respect for craftsmanship and materials. All our solid timber comes from a small, family-run sawmill. Multiform’s cabinetmakers mill out what are known as ‘dovetails’ at each end of the drawer’s solid sides, so the sides can then be assembled precisely with beautiful joints that are silky-soft to the touch.
Traditionally maple has been the material of choice for kitchen drawers, because it is one of the few species of wood that does impart flavour to food stored in the drawers. The maple for all Multiform’s handmade drawers comes from a small, family-run sawmill in Austria and is felled exclusively in European forests. To achieve the lightest colour and the most consistent texture in the wood, the wood for Multiform’s drawers is felled only a few weeks each year, after a period of prolonged frost.
The essential mission of Multiform is to preserve the tradition of solid, Danish craftsmanship, while also designing new details in the same simple, classic idiom. These new details include handmade, oak and smoked-oak drawers with the same exclusive finish. Another novelty is the brass Form 45, which we recently presented at the North Modern design fair in Copenhagen. All edges are bevelled with a 45° chamfer to give the impression of a floating, brass kitchen island – with a dazzling look, like a rigid monolith in the space.
Today, Multiform has showrooms in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg, and recently opened two showrooms in London.
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