The atelier
A working floor, not a polished showroom with a fake saw in the corner
On El Saaqah Street the sound arrives before the door does - planers, a radio someone forgot to turn down, and the occasional argument about whether a tabletop needs one more rest day.
How the building is used
One roof, three jobs, zero theatre
People expect furniture workshops to be either romantic sheds or sterile factories. Ours is neither. The atelier occupies a long ground-floor unit in Sheraton Al Matar with street access for timber deliveries and a quieter rear bay for finishing. We kept the plan boring on purpose: material in one end, finished pieces out the other, people in the middle who know both.
There is no separate "VIP lounge." If you book a visit, you stand where the work happens. We will wipe a bench and pour tea. We will not pretend the dust took the day off.
- Floor areaRoughly 420 m² across timber, joinery, and finish zones
- Benches18 active stations on a normal weekday
- HoursSun-Thu 10:00-18:00; Sat shorter; Fri by appointment
- AddressEl Saaqah St, Sheraton Al Matar, El Nozha, Cairo 4472111
Zone by zone
Walk the sequence the way a board does
Timber hall
Boards arrive stickered by species and batch. They sit. That is the whole point. Oak that travelled in a closed truck in July needs time to stop arguing with Cairo air before we trust it as a tabletop.
Clients often spend the longest here. Reading grain is half the commission - continuous figure across a dining top is not an accident, it is a morning spent rejecting half the stack.
Joinery line
Mortise, tenon, dovetail, floating panels. Machines set accuracy; hands decide when a shoulder is truly seated. Noise is honest. Bring curiosity, not white gloves.
This is where dimensions stop being drawings and start being weight. A sideboard that looked slender on paper suddenly has to clear a stair landing - we catch that here, not at your door.
Finish bay
Dust extraction stays on. Oil coats get full cure time. Pigmented stains are mixed against offcuts under mixed light because west-facing Cairo rooms lie about colour after 3pm.
If a finish looks "almost" right, we remake it. Almost is how tables disappoint people six months later when the sample and the piece diverge.
What a visit is for
Come to decide, not to be sold
A good atelier visit ends with measurements, timber shortlists, and a clearer sense of timeline - not a glossy brochure. We keep sample chairs and a Nil table top in the front bay so you can sit, lean, and argue with the proportions in person.
If you already have drawings from an architect, bring them. If you only have phone photos of a stubborn niche in Heliopolis, bring those too. We have built more furniture from awkward photos than from perfect CAD.
We kept the plan boring on purpose: material in, people in the middle, finished pieces out.