ArchiveFurniture
Strength in Aesthetic – Wood Furniture Handcrafted by Coolican and Company
Peter Coolican, the founder and maker behind furniture studio Coolican and Company, makes beautiful natural furniture that's handmade at his studio in Toronto, Canada.
Archive image note: the original text below dates from 5 June 2018. The photographs shown here are representative examples, not a recovered original image set. Parkside Lounge is later work, developed for Canada Goose’s 2020 project and launched in 2022. It is not presented as part of the 2018 selection or as evidence of the limited runs of twelve described below.
Opening photograph: Edwin Chair in white oak, shown as a representative example. Source: Coolican & Company. Photographer and photograph date unconfirmed.
Toronto has become quite the hub for great design and craft, with many fantastic craftsmen sprouting from this area and offering original and innovative contemporary design. I’m not sure what the reasoning behind this is but I think our good friends at Mjolk have had a strong part to play in it, regularly inviting interesting craftsmen and designers in to the city and showcasing great design from Scandinavia and Japan. So it didn’t surprise me to come across the work of Toronto-based Peter Coolican, the founder and maker behind furniture studio Coolican and Company.
Producing handcrafted furniture Peter works in a slightly different manner to others in this field. Rather than focusing on larger-scale distribution or one-off custom pieces for companies in this area of Canada, Peter decided to make limited runs of his work. In this regard he’s able to work in groups and produce very high quality chairs and tables in batches, usually sets of 12, that are then offered up to clients and customers.
In terms of the design I was inspired to see some of the Scandinavian influences in his work, with the clean lines and using the natural colour of the wood. At the same time some of the more traditional elements stuck out, for example the weaved chair seats and the way the seats are bevelled or the legs are nicely tapered like you might reference in another period of woodworking. Overall a great selection of work that I urge you to view in more detail on the website below. Enjoy.
Later representative work (2020–2022)
