Distilled to its essence, a sideboard is storage. A functional piece designed to hold the fine linens and tableware we reserve for special occasions, the objects we tuck away between seasons, and the belongings we intend to keep for a lifetime.
In the early design stages of the Louis Sideboard, our design studio asked how a sideboard could move beyond storage and become a visual anchor in a room. We found our answer in the work of Jean Prouvé.
In the 1940s, Prouvé worked with industrialized steel components to reimagine the possibilities of residential architecture. From this period emerged one of his most recognizable architectural elements: steel façade panels punctuated by circular glass portholes. Though functional at their core, they introduced a design language that endured for decades.
Their merging of utility and poetry, mass and weightlessness, resonated with us, and became the foundation for the Louis. Handcrafted by master metalsmiths from sheets of cold-rolled steel, the doors are inlaid with circular glass portholes, all spaced evenly by hand. Its rectangular frame, inset top, and planar doors establish a disciplined geometry, while slender legs extend upward through the front. In its final form, it holds weight and lightness in equilibrium.
Set in a room, the Louis occupies space with authority, like architecture brought to the scale of furniture. It earns permanence not as a storage piece, but as a design with presence.
© Fonds Cardot et Joly. Centre Pompidou-MNAM/CCIBibliothèque Kandinsky, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais. Photo Vera Cardot, Pierre Joly.
© Phillips Auctioneers
© Fonds Jean Prouvé
© University of Chicago
