Round Ottomans

Round Moroccan Leather Ottomans — The Craft Behind the Object

The round Moroccan leather ottoman — the Stormia — has been produced in the medinas of Fès and Marrakesh for centuries. Its form is deceptively simple: a cylinder of hand-stitched leather, filled and finished by hand. Its making is not.

The leather begins in the tanneries — soaked, limed, softened in pigeon-dung vats, tanned for weeks in stone basins of oak gall and pomegranate rind, then dyed by hand using plant-based pigments that produce colours of a depth and complexity that synthetic dyes cannot replicate. The tanning process alone takes several weeks. It has been performed this way, without machinery or synthetic chemicals, since the medieval period.

The stitching is done by a maâlem — a master craftsman who has trained for ten to fifteen years before working independently. The saddle stitch used on each ottoman — two needles working simultaneously from opposite sides of the seam — is stronger than any machine stitch and will outlast the leather itself. The embroidery is worked by hand in silk or metallic thread, in geometric and floral patterns drawn from the Amazigh and Andalusian decorative traditions.

How to Choose Your Ottoman

All ottomans in this collection are made from full-grain goatskin — the finest leather produced in Morocco, with a tight grain that takes dye with exceptional precision and develops a rich patina over years of use. The choice between colours is primarily aesthetic: the natural dye palette — cognac, deep red, tan, ivory, turquoise, pistachio, orange — reflects the traditional colour vocabulary of the Moroccan tannery. The oil-tanned natural leather is undyed, showing the warm, unaltered tone of the hide itself.

For care: condition once or twice a year with a natural beeswax or lanolin-based conditioner. Blot spills immediately — do not rub. Keep away from prolonged direct sunlight. The patina that develops with use is not deterioration — it is the material expressing its quality.

Authenticity

An authentic Moroccan leather ottoman is warm to the touch (vegetable-tanned leather has a thermal quality that chrome-tanned leather lacks), has a pleasant natural smell (oak galls, pomegranate rind), and has stitching that is hand-done — slightly irregular, the product of a human hand rather than a machine. Every ottoman in this collection is sourced directly from the maâlem who made it, with full traceability to its workshop of origin.

Read the Complete Guide to Moroccan Leather →  |  Explore All Poufs & Ottomans →  |  The Story of the Tanneries of Fès →