Slowing down for a deliberate way forward

Starting 2026 with a fresh strategy

The start of a new year has a way of bringing things into focus.
Not through big resolutions or bold promises, but by revealing where our energy actually goes, and whether that still aligns with what we care about most.

Over the past years, House of Thol has grown steadily: More products, more shops, more boxes moving from A to B.
We’re grateful for that. Selling objects is how we make a living, and that won’t change.

But along the way, we’ve come to realise something essential:
what truly drives us, isn’t selling more things, it’s researching the mundane and shaping more conscious ways of living from those insights.

Designing solutions for the everyday

House of Thol doesn’t start with objects, it starts with everyday habits. We believe that’s where design can make a real difference.

We focus on the ordinary — the often overlooked routines that shape our days — and examine them closely. By asking simple but persistent questions, we aim to understand how these systems work, where they disconnect from natural processes, and how sustainable choices can become intuitive rather than demanding.

Much of our time is spent researching these questions, looking at biological processes, traditional techniques, human behaviour, and the small frictions of everyday life. The objects we make are not the starting point, but the result — practical, intuitive tools shaped by that research.

And sometimes, the most meaningful outcome of that research isn’t an object at all, but sharing what we’ve learned in a way that’s accessible and actionable in everyday life.

Less selling, more sharing

To be clear, we’re not stepping away from making and selling products. That remains part of how we sustain our practice.
What we are stepping away from is letting sales dictate all of our time and attention. Instead, we want to focus more deliberately on researching everyday habits and on translating that research into tangible tools and actionable knowledge.

That means sharing more context, more observations, and more of the reasoning behind our work.
Less emphasis on what we made, and more on why things work the way they do.

Some products will become available only directly through House of Thol. Not as a scarcity tactic, but because it allows us to stay closer to the work itself, and to the people who use it.

It also means shifting how we spend our time: focusing less on marketing to shops, and more on communicating what we do in a personal, direct way.

Arranging flowers with the Flower Constellation M - brass flower tools designed by House of Thol / photograph by Gaav Content

Rethinking Growth

For a long time, growth in the creative industry has been defined narrowly: more stockists, more volume, more output. We’ve followed that path, but we’re no longer convinced it’s the most meaningful or future-proof way forward.

This year, we’re exploring how to restructure our practice so it can move at a more sustainable pace, with clearer intention about where our energy goes. That means making room for research that doesn’t immediately need to turn into a product, and allowing ideas to develop more slowly.

To support that shift, we’re looking into other ways of financing the research side of our work, so it doesn’t always have to be carried by product sales alone. We don’t have all the answers yet, this is very much a process, we're open to input on this

We’re also becoming more selective about how and where we present our work. Our objects are part of a larger research process, and they make the most sense when that context is visible. We want to choose moments that allow us to tell the full story, because that’s what the work deserves.

Moving forward, deliberately

  • If you’re wondering whether this means we’re coming to a halt, we’re not. The coming months hold plenty of movement and momentum.

    We’re looking forward to returning to Passagen Köln and Object Rotterdam, and to our first participation in the Moestuinbeurs, each offering a different context to share our work and research in conversation with others.
    Alongside this, we’re preparing a crowdfunding campaign for our Patina Germinanda, which should also launch in the first three months of the year.

  • There’s plenty happening. The difference lies in how we choose to engage with it.
    Less rushing. Less noise. More attention to what feels essential.

    We’ll keep exploring, researching, making, and sharing, sometimes through objects, sometimes through stories, sometimes through questions.

    If you’re curious about everyday systems and small, practical ways of living more consciously, you’ll likely feel at home here.