Three Trees, Three Benches: Charlie Day x Futsol

Some of the best things we get to be part of don't start with us. Charlie Day is a London furniture maker, the man behind Made By Day and a good friend of Futsol. He came to us with a project he'd been carrying around for a while. He'd grown up playing football in East London, and he wanted to build something from the places that shaped him: a personal piece of London, made by hand.

What follows is Charlie's project: three trees, three benches. The film and photography are by our friend Luana Viegas, who spent time in the workshop and hackney marshes with him.

Before design, there was the pitch

"Before I understood design I understood places like this, which is the exact pitch where I grew up playing football as a kid."

For Charlie, football was the first place he could express himself: room for instinct, imagination and a way of playing that felt like his own. He sees the same thing in his work now.

"That freedom to explore, create, and run around, as you do when you're a kid, is the same kind of attitude that I'm using in the design world now."

The medium has changed, but the urge to make something that feels like him hasn't. This project is where the two meet.

Three trees, three parks

The benches are made from three trees, each from a London park Charlie grew up around, and each over 80 years old:

• London plane, from Hackney Marshes
• Beech, from Victoria Park
• English oak, from Wanstead Flats
  

"Something that blows my mind is when we walk around London, a quite congested fast-paced city, and then you have these trees towering over us that are more than 200 years old. They've seen more than most of us have in our lifetime."

That's what draws him to London timber. Someone could sit on one of these benches in their living room and be sitting on something that has stood in the city through all of it.

Letting the wood lead

Charlie didn't go in with a fixed design. He let the material decide.

"The grain, the knots, the colour, the history, the age, and all of its natural form will create the design for me. It feels like I'm doing only half the project because I'm using such beautiful material. They're designers within themselves. I just have to shape them together."

He cut the timber into separate seat and back panels so he could judge each piece on its own and then see how it sat next to the others. The result is a repeated, considered form that still leaves room for every board to be itself. Grain changes direction, tones shift and knots break up the surface.

Building on what was already there

The frames aren't new. Charlie took old, existing benches, reworked the metal, welded the joints and finished them in black powder coat. That gives the collection one clean outline and lets the different timbers take their own place within it. It also keeps a link to the life of the original benches. The making builds on something that was already there.

Red, amber and carved black

The benches come in three finishes: deep red, warm amber and carved black. The black is cut by hand, each mark slightly different, so the surface catches the light differently depending on where you stand. In Charlie's words, looking closely "reveals more than the overall shape of the bench."

Why a sideline bench

"Growing up at Hackney Marshes, I remember hundreds of kids playing, coaches coaching and mums and dads watching. The sidelines were part of that shared experience."

Whether you're a sub waiting to come on, a coach following the game or someone who's just come to watch, the bench is where you belong to the match without being on the pitch. Charlie's benches carry that into furniture: a place to sit, watch and be part of the game.

Made in London

"Football gave me a place to express myself growing up. Furniture design gives that creativity a place in my life now."

We're proud to have Charlie and his work on these pages. Thanks, Charlie, for letting us tell this one with you.

Watch the video on Instagram here.

Design and making by Charlie Day, Made By Day. Film and photography by Luana Viegas (@ViegasLua).