Valentin Loellmann's Extraordinary Pieces & Workshop in Maastricht.

If you’ve never heard of Valentin Loellmann, then please allow us to familiarise you. The German-born designer’s work is, in a word, extraordinary. Moreover, his workshop in Maastrict, a quaint medieval town in The Netherlands, is a workspace to be envied. Loellmann rented one room in the old painter’s studio after graduating from the local Academy of Fine Arts, and within three years was able to purchase the entire 500sqm space. Safe to say his designs rose to popularity rather quickly.

We’re more inclined to describe Loellmann’s designs as collectible art rather than furniture. They retail closer to art, too – some pieces are currently going for over $70k. Each one is unique, handmade, signed and dated. Creativity seems to run in the family, with his father a ceramist, his mother an artist, and four siblings that are a contemporary dancer, textile designer, photographer, and fashion designer respectively.

Imagination fuels Loellmann’s work, which materialises from animated creative inspiration rather than purely functional considerations. “My work can’t be categorized as art or furniture, it is either both or it is in between,” he says.

Case in point, some of his work takes the deceptive form of traditional furnishing, minus the accompanying function. A collection titled “steps” features a series of staircases that lead nowhere, spiralling away into an un-steppable point. “For me, staircases are the most interesting way of combining two points in space,” says Loellmann. “The piece is free and lets you explore its surroundings.”

However, most collections offer entirely functional, organic modern furniture. Combining polished metals with sturdy, smooth timber is one of Loellmann’s signature traits, and we’re obsessed with the technique as demonstrated in his brass collection. Solid brass plates are cut and welded into frames to support hand planed solid walnut, forming chairs, tables, and benches. All surfaces are then polished to best reflect light. The resulting effect is as though otherwise humble timber furnishings were plucked up and dipped in gold. Loellmann applies the same technique to various metal-timber combinations, including a sultry charred oak and steel.

The organic lines of Loellmann’s work have an almost cartoonlike, storybook quality. Fittingly his partner, Jip, is an illustrator for children’s books. Seriously, this guy’s life reads like an art-meets-design fairytale, notwithstanding a lot of hard work and hours spent in the workshop.

Loellmann’s workshop space deserves a special mention. He moonlights as an interior designer for specific commissions and designed his artist studio to be conducive to concentration and balance. Skylights cut into the ceiling allow maximum light to penetrate the ground floor workspace, and tropical indoor plants abound, including bamboo trees and orchids that climb up to 3 meters tall.

The space opens on to a garden complete with more bamboo trees, a pond and a small orangery. Sounds truly idyllic (which, at a $70k price point, says the same for ever hoping to own a piece by Loellmann). We can only dream!