TL;DR: Every ATYP piece is made in our own workshop in Slovakia: sheet steel is cut, folded, welded, hand finished, phosphate treated, powder coated, and packed under one roof. A custom order takes 3 to 5 weeks from confirmation to shipment, with a design visualization sent inside the first two weeks. This is what actually happens in that time.
Made in Slovakia is easy to print on a label. Here is what it means on the floor, stage by stage, for the piece you order.
Week one: from order to drawing
A configured order arrives as numbers: product, size, finish, mounting, sometimes an engraving. A designer turns those numbers into a build drawing and, for custom work, a visualization you approve before anything is cut. Nothing enters the metal queue until the drawing is signed off, because steel does not forgive guesswork.
Cutting and folding
The raw material is 3mm cold-rolled steel sheet. Cold rolling leaves a denser, smoother surface than hot-rolled stock, which matters later when the powder has to flow into one even skin. Parts are cut, then folded on the brake press, where a flat blank becomes a shelf profile in a handful of precise bends. Fold order matters; get it wrong and the last bend cannot physically be made.
Welding and hand finishing
Joints are welded, then ground and hand finished until the weld disappears into the profile. This is the slowest station in the workshop and the one that separates furniture from fabrication. An edge you will touch every day gets treated differently from one that faces the wall, and both get inspected before the piece moves on.
Phosphate, powder, oven
Bare steel goes through a phosphate pre-treatment that cleans it chemically and gives the coating something to bond to; skip it and even a well applied powder lifts within years. Then the piece is charged, sprayed with dry powder in the booth, and baked. The powder melts and cures into a continuous skin 60 to 80 micrometres thick. Five house shades cover most orders, Chalk, Linen, Slate, Umber, and Graphite, and any RAL code can be mixed for a custom piece; every shade is confirmed against a physical RAL sample before coating.
Inspection and packing
After the oven, every surface is checked in raking light, where coating faults have nowhere to hide. Pieces that pass are packed with their mounting hardware in one solid box. Pieces that do not pass go back, which is rarer every year and non-negotiable when it happens. What ships is covered by the two-year guarantee on welds, finish, and material.
Why 3 to 5 weeks is the honest number
Each stage above is real time: drawing and approval, the metal queue, welding, the coating line, curing, inspection. Industry-wide, custom furniture routinely quotes 6 to 16 weeks. Our range is small and the shop is ours, so the honest number is 3 to 5 weeks for a made to order piece, and within 5 working days for in-stock standard pieces that are already made and waiting. When you order through Design your own, the visualization lands inside the first two weeks, so the wait is never silent.
See the results
The production page shows the stages in photographs, and the catalogue shows where they end up: a KANSO towel holder, a LUME shelf, a CLAIR holder, all out of the same booth in the same five shades.
FAQ
Where is ATYP furniture made?
In our own workshop in Slovakia. Cutting, folding, welding, powder coating, and packing all happen in house.
How long does a custom ATYP piece take?
3 to 5 weeks from order to shipment, with a design visualization sent for approval inside the first two weeks. In-stock standard pieces ship within 5 working days.
Can I visit or commission something unusual?
Commissions are welcome through the customize page, from resized catalogue pieces to new work in any RAL shade.
Written by ATYP for ATYP, custom metal furniture made in Slovakia.
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