Craft, then everything else.
Each piece passes through roughly forty pairs of hands. The pleats, the stitches, the cushion fold — none of it is automated, and none of it is rushed.
Free US shipping on every order.New here? for $35 off your first order.30-day returns. Try it on the floor.
Hi, we're Pumela.
We make one sofa,
very seriously.
A small studio devoted to the soft, pleated, low-slung silhouette — the shape that ate the floor and then ate the room. We build it 98% faithful, in full-grain materials, by hand.
Image placeholderHero — Togo styled in a living roomWide angle, natural light, modular configuration visible
One form. Many homes.Chair, loveseat, three-seater, corner — build to the inch.
How this started.
Two years of refusing to settle.
Pumela began the way most quiet studios do — with a couch we couldn't stop thinking about, and a polite no from every shortcut we were offered.
We wanted the soft, sectional, sit-on-the-floor feeling of the early-1970s silhouette — built honestly: full-grain hides, real density foam, workshop-stitched pleats. Not foam slabs in a polyester wrap. Not a print-out catalogue knockoff. Not a flatpack box with eight hours of homework inside.
So we made it ourselves. The first prototype lived in a friend's apartment for ten months. We changed the back-cushion fold nine times. We argued about thread color for a week.
When we finally felt right about the piece, we made a second one. Then a fifth. Then enough that we needed a workshop. Pumela is what came out of that — small, slow, and very particular about what leaves the building. About 98% of the way to the brief, on a good week.
Image placeholderThe workshop floorWide shot — in-progress sofa in foreground, craftspeople at work behind
What the studio runs on.
Four rules we don't bend.
Materials that earn patina.
Full-grain leather and the same fabric spec we keep reaching for on the originals. No downgrade grades. Things that look better at year five than year one.
Ready to live with.
No flatpack, no allen key. Every module ships as one finished piece, set down by the courier, and sat on the same afternoon.
We pick up the phone.
A real person on chat, email, or phone — twenty-four hours a day. Plus a 5-year limited warranty we honor without making you read fine print.
Forty pairs of hands.
Slow, on purpose.
Most of the time inside the workshop is waiting — for joints to cure, for cushions to rest, for the pattern-maker to be satisfied. The slow parts are the point.
Read: forty hands, one sofa- Image placeholderWorkshop · FrameClose-up of hand-jointed frame on workshop bench
Step 1
Frame
Kiln-dried hardwood, hand-jointed. The skeleton that has to last a generation of Sundays.
- Image placeholderWorkshop · PleatsHands shaping the back-cushion fold, fabric in progress
Step 2
Pleats
Each fold is patterned by hand. The back-cushion prototype went through nine iterations before our pattern-maker said it was right.
- Image placeholderWorkshop · FinishFinished sofa in workshop, final inspection
Step 3
Finish
Final stitch, final brush, final sit-down. Nothing leaves the workshop without a quiet five-minute test from the person who built it.
The studio.
A small team, on the floor.
Pumela is a tight studio. Everyone you talk to has actually touched the sofa you're asking about.
Image placeholderPortrait · FounderCandid portrait, studio or workshop setting
Founder
Started Pumela after two years of trying to buy this silhouette done right — and refusing every compromise we were offered.
Image placeholderPortrait · Head of craftPortrait on workshop floor, sleeves rolled up
Head of craft
Runs the workshop floor. Has opinions about thread tension that you will, eventually, agree with.
Image placeholderPortrait · Materials leadPortrait with leather swatches or fabric rolls
Materials lead
Sources every hide, every weave. Spends more time at tanneries than at her own desk.
Image placeholderPortrait · Customer carePortrait at desk, headset optional
Customer care
Picks up on the second ring. Will not transfer you. Will email back with photos.
Quick numbers, no spin.
The studio, in four small facts.
- Faithful to the silhouette
- 98%Faithful to the silhouette
- Pairs of hands per sofa
- 40Pairs of hands per sofa
- Limited warranty
- 5-yrLimited warranty
- Human support
- 24/7Human support
What you actually get.
The promises that come in the box.
We keep the list short on purpose. Every line is something we won't walk back on — from the materials to the day you have a question and need a human.
Image placeholderMaterials close-upFull-grain leather grain, fabric weave, velvet pile — overhead flat lay
Full-grain leather, premium fabric, real velvet — no split, no bonded, ever.
Build Your Togo configurator — size, hide, stitch, your room.
Custom gets the same 5-year warranty as the collection — customization never reduces coverage.
No flatpack — each module arrives as one finished, sit-on-it-now piece.
30-day return so the first weekend in your living room is the one that counts.
The longer version.
Read the Pumela Journal.
The history of the silhouette, the workshop diaries, care routines that actually work, and our running notes on living with one of these for years. New piece every week-ish, no promos.
Image placeholderBuild Your Togo — configurator previewConfigurator screen mockup, or finished Togo in styled room
Come pick one out.
Find the configuration your room has been waiting for.
Chair, loveseat, sectional, corner. Hide or fabric. Stitch and shade. The Configurator takes about five minutes, and we'll be on chat the whole way if you want a second pair of eyes.