Try sitting on a cement floor. You'll feel uncomfortable. After a while, you'll start to feel soreness in your back and hips. Now imagine sitting there for six hours, five days a week. On top of that, try to focus your attention, read, write and maybe even learn a language. Today, this is a challenge children in many parts of the world face. Teachers and classroom time, are the most limited resources in a majority of underserved schools. Unlocked can help children learn and teachers teach with the limited time they have.

Our C series Desk and Chair addresses this need with a versatile interlocking design. Assembling in under 2 minutes without tools or hardware they are strong enough to support hundreds of pounds and a lifetime of use. Because of our nested design, 2 desk and chair sets can be cut from a single sheet of 3/4" 4'x8' void free baltic birch plywood. The same design and construction you receive will be used by the schools who accept donations from Unlocked.

C1 Desk and Chair fully assembled

C1 Desk and Chair flat packed in box

The C1 Desk and Chair were designed to work well in the third world, in a number of ways. Because of the set’s compact nesting design, a truck bed that once carried 30 desks and chairs can now carry 69 desks and chairs*, to areas with limited infrastructure. Because of their relative lightness as well as their tool and hardware free assembly, our C series furniture can be easily moved. This allows them to function well in schools that serve as multi-use spaces. Lastly, we provide the communities with the same desk and chairs that you receive, giving them a source of community pride in ownership.

C1 set being assembled

Along with making these sets function for the third world we needed to make something we were happy to use everyday. So in addition to durable it had to be beautiful and comfortable. The back rest was designed to fit precisely into the small of your back and has a 5 degree tilt that fits the natural contour of your spine. We offer several chair heights, to allow you to pick the one that best fits your body. The desk surface is a perfect size to fit your laptop, a book and a notebook. The height of the surface is set to allow you to rest your arms while typing. The depth and width even provide enough room for a second chair for head to head collaborative work.

Yashui school in rural China

Meeting our goal will allow us to make a single large purchase order and prove our concept to retailers and manufacturers. The profits will furnish our first complete school, Yashui school in the Guizhou Province of China - a school with enthusiastic teachers, administrators and students - in a very poor, rural area. Starting with two test classrooms associated with a partner charity, we will be able to gain feedback on our product and further improve the design of the C1 as we furnish the rest of the rooms.

Toddler Table and Chairs

How can we do this? Over the past few years, first generation computer controlled cutting devices, that were replaced in America and Europe, have been sold to manufacturers around the world. By only using one material and no hardware, we are able to take advantage of these first generation devices to produce uniform donated products in any country. By sending design files and not shipping hard products, we avoid the transport costs, pollution and customs issues associated with traditional centralized manufacturing. Because all of our products will be made on a machine bed, we eliminate human error and save on quality control costs. These advantages allow us to manufacture in and stimulate economies close to locations in need, with the simple click of a button.

Always made locally, still made globally. To maximize our impact Unlocked will remain extremely lean– both in terms of our manufacturing process and business structure. Many of the advantages that allows us to easily manufacture at donation sites also allow us to manufacture domestically sold products in the United States. Nesting all the parts of our C series desks and chairs within one another minimizes waste and allows us to use higher grade materials, than would normally be possible. Multiple manufactures have estimated a fair sale price of our desk and chair set at $300-500 USD, without considering the cost of donating a second set. By producing when orders are received and shipping direct we are able to sell our products well below this price. All these things combine with the aesthetic care taken during the design our products, to provide open access to non-disposable, well designed products at home while helping others abroad. 

Circle Car

Who are we? Unlocked Furniture is a small group with experience in design, product development and logistics. We wanted to create an organization that could do good and be self-sustaining. While looking for an area where our expertise aligned with a need, we discovered that schools in many areas of the world – particularly impoverished rural areas – lacked basic supplies and furnishings. Given our experience, creating furnishings for these schools seemed like an ideal place for us to start.

Chair Size Comparison

Big Logo Tee

Why buy furniture from Unlocked? When you help us, you get a quality piece of furniture for a reasonable price and an underprivileged child gets a better environment in which to learn. Help us to help children and communities in need.

* Transportation estimates based on '08 Ford F150 w/ 8' Bed and average disassembled size of three popular desk and chair sets of similar dimensions chosen at random from Amazon.com