Undressed Collection by Georgina Davies reconsiders MDF, not as a disposable substrate, but as a material capable of carrying light, touch and time.
In this series of furniture pieces, Australia-based designer Georgina Davies allows MDF to occupy the foreground. The boards are not masked beneath veneers or lacquered into anonymity. Instead, their edges, faces and seams remain legible, so that the viewer reads the work as a meeting of industrial sheet stock and precise, almost architectural geometry. Consoles, low tables and vertical elements slip between assertive volume and quiet recession, depending on how they catch the light and where they sit in a room.
The surfaces are transformed through a laborious process that borrows from French polishing, a technique historically reserved for precious hardwoods. Multiple thin coats of shellac are applied, built up through fine spray and microfiber brush work until the MDF takes on a muted, luminous depth. The finish does not attempt to disguise the material beneath; rather, it sharpens its presence, catching subtle reflections while retaining a dry, powdery calm that feels in tune with a coastal climate.
Formally, the collection speaks a language close to early modernism. Rectilinear planes and measured offsets recall Bauhaus furniture and the idea of furniture as small architecture. From one angle, a piece reads as a solid block, anchoring an entry or wall. From another, negative space opens up, revealing cantilevers, shadows and fine reveals that keep the work from feeling monumental. The palette remains restrained, allowing proportion and junctions to do most of the expressive work.
Beneath this clarity lies a gentle argument about value. MDF is a democratic, often overlooked material, born from wood waste and industrial efficiency. By subjecting it to a slow, meticulous finishing process, Davies suggests that care, time and attention can raise even the most ordinary matter to the level of quiet luxury. Undressed Collection does not chase spectacle; it offers instead a set of modest, durable companions for interiors shaped by light, reflection and the everyday movement of bodies.
