A Musician’s Passion Project Leads to Hand-Built Furniture Debut

Ah Um founder Zack Nestel-Patt brings his soulful, lived-in aesthetic to the launch of the Jura furniture collection featuring contrasting forms.

May 28, 2025 - 07:30

A Musician’s Passion Project Leads to Hand-Built Furniture Debut

When Zack Nestel-Patt first began designing furniture, it wasn’t for the masses. It hit closer to home – his own home. A touring musician by trade, Zack’s foray into design started with a single piece he built for his living room in Los Angeles. That one-off creation quickly snowballed – first gaining attention through Not Normal Market LA, then evolving into a full-fledged collection under his Ah Um Design Studio. Now, with the debut of the Jura collection at NYCxDesign 2025, Zack is bringing his soulful, texture-driven pieces to a bigger stage, proving that the same tension and rhythm that fuel his music can just as powerfully shape a room.

Before diving into furniture, Nestel-Patt’s only woodworking experience was crafting hardwood cremation urns – a somber, deeply personal starting point that quietly shaped his approach to design. While the scale and function of his work have shifted, that same sensitivity carries into his furniture, where he’s drawn to the emotional texture of objects. “I am obsessed with texture, not just texture as in a tactile aspect to a material, but texture as an emotional component to designing and living with objects,” Nestel-Patt shares. “Being able to see and feel the remnants of the hands that made or designed something imbues an object with feeling, history, and thought.”

It wasn’t long after finishing that first piece for his own home that Nestel-Patt began shaping what would become the Jura collection. The early lineup included a coffee table, stool, side table, mirror, pedestal, and bench – each one reflecting his signature mix of geometric details and rich textures. Now, at NYCxDesign, Nestel-Patt unveiled the full collection, adding a dining chair, side table, club chair, tiled accent chair, and tiled floor lamp to the family, marking a major milestone for both Ah Um and its thoughtful, lived-in approach to design.

The Jura collection is as layered in its influences as it is in texture. Nestel-Patt draws inspiration from design legends like George Nakashima, Luis Barragán, and J.B. Blunk, but his work steers clear of anything overly precious or conceptual. He believes that chairs are meant to be sat on, tables to be gathered around, lamps to fill a space with light. Balancing sharp lines with soft materials and simplicity with a touch of the unexpected, his pieces create a quiet tension – one that Nestel-Patt hopes, like his music, will momentarily suspend you in time and invite a fully immersive experience as you interact with them.

With the recent debut of the full Jura collection, Nestel-Patt opens the door to the world he’s been quietly building when he’s not penning music. Rather than asking you to admire it from afar, he encourages you to come closer – to notice the difference between something that’s only beautiful and something that’s meant to be lived with. The secret is that Nestel-Patt knows the latter is what makes something truly memorable.

To learn more about Am Um Design Studio’s Jura collection, visit ahumdesignstudio.com.

Photography by Ryin Rosenberg.