Manutti: how a Belgian textile family built an outdoor furniture house
Founder Stéphane De Winter's family ran a linen business. That background is why Manutti designs seating around fabric first, then builds the frame to carry it — across teak, aluminum and a solid-surface material borrowed from bathroom fixtures.
Manutti is a Belgian outdoor furniture house founded in 2002 by Stéphane De Winter in Deerlijk, a town in West Flanders known for its textile industry. The company treats fabric as its starting point rather than an afterthought: De Winter's father ran a linen processing business, and that background shaped a catalogue built around a library of more than eighty performance-fabric colorways, laid over frames in powder-coated aluminum and FSC-certified teak. The result is a house that designs seating around cloth and cushion first, then builds the structure to carry it.
Manutti's early growth ran alongside a broader shift among Belgian and Italian outdoor houses toward year-round, weather-resistant fabrics in the 2000s, but the company kept its identity distinct by treating textile development as an in-house discipline rather than a supplier relationship. Collections such as Nami and Flows pair aluminum frames with soft cushions and oval teak legs, while lines like Torsa and Air move away from fabric altogether into sculpted teak and ceramic tabletops — a sign that the fabric-first approach is a starting discipline for the house, not a limit on where the catalogue goes.
De Winter's father ran a linen processing business — a background that put fabric, not frame, at the center of how Manutti designs.
A catalogue built from a materials library
The fabric-first idea extends past cushions. Elements, a modular seating line, is built in Quaryl, a solid-surface material developed by the bathroom fixtures maker Villeroy & Boch, used here in subdued outdoor colors rather than the ceramic or stone more common on a terrace. Torsa pairs sculpted teak bases with faux-marble or ceramic tabletops. Even the rugs carry the same instinct: Solae and Mareno are handwoven outdoor rugs, and Linear is made from textilene, a woven vinyl-coated polyester built to resist sun and rain.
Designers behind the collections
Manutti works with an international roster rather than a single house designer. Metrica Design Studio, based in Milan, contributes across several lines; Koen Van Extergem, Lionel Doyen, Gerd Couckhuyt and Matthew Townsend each design specific collections, and De Winter continues to shape pieces himself. The range this produces sits between two poles: sculptural, upholstery-heavy seating such as Nami and Kumo, and hard-surface, architectural pieces such as Torsa and Napoli.
For US buyers, Manutti collections reach the market through authorized dealers in cities including Los Angeles and Miami, with lead times that vary by line and finish. The full collection, with designer attributions and material notes, is in our Manutti profile.