Finding Rhythm In Design: How Ah Um Design Studio Is Striking A New Chord In Furniture

Ah Um Design Studio creates furniture that explores rhythm, movement, and material interplay. Led by Los Angeles-based designer Zachary Nestel-Patt, the studio’s debut Jura collection combines expressive wood forms, tactile upholstery, and handcrafted tiles, treating materials as active design elements. The result is sculptural yet functional furniture that balances intuition, craft, and contemporary spatial awareness.

Project Info

Project Name: Jura

Architects/Designers: Ah Um Design Studio

Location: Los Angeles, USA

Ah Um Design Studio approaches furniture design as a study of rhythm, balance, and material expression. Founded by Los Angeles-based designer Zachary Nestel-Patt, the studio creates sculptural pieces that feel composed rather than constructed - where form, texture, and color work together in deliberate harmony.

Nestel-Patt’s background in music subtly shapes his design language. Instead of rigid symmetry, his furniture favors movement: angled frames, shifting planes, and visual pauses that invite the eye to travel across each piece. This sense of flow is especially evident in the studio’s debut Jura collection, an eleven-piece series spanning seating, tables, stools, and lighting.

Wood forms the structural backbone of the collection, crafted into expressive silhouettes that feel both grounded and dynamic. These frames are softened by tactile upholstery - mohair and bouclé adding depth, warmth, and contrast. A defining element is the use of handcrafted tiles sourced from Mexico, applied across surfaces as both functional and decorative accents. Their subtle irregularities introduce color, texture, and a quiet tension between the handmade and the architectural.

Sculptural wooden frames define Ah Um’s furniture, emphasizing movement and balance over rigid symmetry

Handcrafted tiles introduce color and texture, blurring the line between surface and structure

Upholstery in mohair introduces a soft counterpoint to the sharp geometry of the frame

Rather than treating materials as static finishes, Ah Um uses them as active design components. Tile becomes a surface to interact with light, wood becomes a line of motion, and fabric becomes a sensory counterpoint. The result is furniture that sits comfortably between object and environment - bold enough to stand alone, yet adaptable within a lived space.

Tile placement acts as a visual anchor, grounding the composition within each piece

Carefully proportioned elements balance weight, scale, and negative space

Rooted in Los Angeles’s experimental design culture, Ah Um Design Studio prioritizes intuition, material honesty, and spatial awareness. Each piece reflects a considered dialogue between structure and sensation, offering a contemporary approach to furniture that values feeling as much as form.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ah Um Design Studio