For Plywood Benches

KILI MARTINEZ, Lil Barnabis; lilbarnabis.com

kili martinez’s tables and chairs tend to mix Juddlike plywood with surprising accents, like light-pink

’80s-style seat cushions, and play with proportion by featuring oversize seat backs, but he doesn’t push any particular style on his clients. For a recent commission, hairstylist Masami Hosono turned to Martinez’s studio, Lil Barnabis, to make a place to sit in the waiting area of their East Village salon, Vacancy Project. “He asked me: ‘What kind of wood? What texture? What kind of vibe?’ [The process] was very carefree.” The angular bench he ended up building them, made with his signature plywood, fits seamlessly into their wonky old building. “I couldn’t afford a really nice single piece of wood,”

Hosono says, “so he made the bench with thin pieces of birch wood in so many layers that it looks like one piece.” Benches start at $350 and dining tables at $600, and Martinez has a speedy twoto-three-week turnaround.