The modernist designers chose 1 inch thick cold drawn steel tube because it was a widely available and cheap material. Still today gas and water pipings are made of it.

If there is nothing special about the material, using it for the making of high-class furniture requires most precise hand labour.
Metal for steelform furniture is shaped and welded by highly skilled workers, then hand finished to a mirror-like superficies before receiving a 35 micron chrome plating. We are sometimes asked about whether our steel frames were "triple chromed" as well. Any proper electroplating needs three steps: a copper plating, a nickel plating and in the end the chroming itself. More layers of chrome on top of a mirror like surface, would simply chip off.

Woods

steelform uses ash and oak woods from Slovenia. These materials have been stored and naturally dried for years prior to being used, thus minimizing the risk of occurring cracks or distortions to an absolute minimum.
The reproduction of the sophisticated Mackintosh furniture is a challenge for our joiners and the result of their efforts is a true artisanal work.

Regarding upholstery materials a lot has changed since the late twenties and a dense, fire retarding, polyurethane foam is widely used for all kinds of upholsteries on the furniture we sell.
On some models seats and backs are filled with natural duck feathers to give them a more "old fashioned" and soft look and feel. On others like the Corbusier LC 2 range, we use composite foams.

Leathers

We use aniline dyed top grain bovine leathers to cover our upholsteries.
"Top grain" is the upper surface of a cowhide with its individual, natural appearance. Only hides from animals that are not too scarred can be used to produce this leather. Inferior hides need to be ground down and artificially textured to hide the scars and marks. They are relatively thin (0,6-0,8mm) and their surface may show cracks after some time.

Our leathers medium thickness is between 1,1-1,3 mm and they all have a beautifully pronounced natural grain. To get best quality, we also use a tanning process that not only preserves the beauty but ensures high durability as well. Properly treated (i.e. not exposed to direct sunlight) our furnituire will last for decades. A word about thickness: Thicker is not necessarily better! Whenever leather has to follow a certain shape, (like in most cases when making furniture) a thickness of 2mm does make no sense, but gives the whole piece a clumsy look. Whoever states using such i.e. on a corbusier armchair, probably does not know much about his products.