The Minimono Project – Multifunctional Furniture for Everyone
An Eco Twin for furniture, focusing on plastic recycling and longevity.
It all began during the pandemic—at the dining table. Often, the table forms the center of family life, the heart of the home. That’s exactly what Julieta Benito Sanz and Dirk Lachmann discovered with their two children, especially during those months when daily life suddenly revolved around the confines of their home. The table became a place for work, learning, reading, drawing, eating, and playing. Did that mean every activity or person needed their own separate table? Of course not. That would go against the very idea of togetherness a table represents. But a shared piece of furniture should still meet the needs of different uses and body sizes. And yet—most tables don’t. So Julieta and Dirk started to imagine what ideal furniture might look like. Function guided their thinking. Sustainability was non-negotiable. Aesthetic appeal was also key. This vision became the foundation for the MiNiMONO Project—a small but refined furniture collection made from recycled—or better yet, upcycled—HDPE plastic. It’s designed to work for both kids and adults alike.
The non-toxic high-density polyethylene (HDPE) used is a semi-crystalline, thermoplastic polymer made solely from hydrogen and carbon. It has a strong environmental profile. The material is durable, waterproof, easy to clean, suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and can be recycled again if needed. The furniture collection is 100% made in Germany. It includes stools (which also double as side tables or plant stands), step stools, tables, an armchair, and a rotating selection of small accessories. Each piece is shipped as a compact flat-pack kit that’s easy to assemble by hand. This approach minimizes packaging waste, avoids unnecessary trash, reduces transport volume—and keeps the carbon footprint as low as possible.
What did you do professionally before launching Minimono?
Julieta: I’m actually an architect, but I’ve always worked more in interiors—overseeing renovations and furnishing projects. Later, I co-founded Silo, a concept store featuring modern products from Spanish manufacturers. We offered fashion, toys, and home goods. That’s how I gradually found my way into product design.
Dirk: I originally studied law, but I never worked as a lawyer. Instead, I’ve always created spatial concepts for galleries and exhibitions. Eventually, I started building furniture together with the artist Ion Arregui. That led us to found Studio Kilikolo—a Basque word that means “wobbly.”
You’re partners in life—what made you become partners in business as well?
Julieta: During the pandemic—especially during the first lockdown—we, like so many others, spent a lot of time at home in our apartment in Berlin. We started paying attention to how we actually used our furniture. We have two kids, a few years apart in age, and suddenly we were all sitting at the same table, with different interests, different body sizes—and that table didn’t really work for everyone. So we started looking for one that could do better. Dirk is very tall, and I need a step stool to reach just about anything. The same stool the kids use to get to the kitchen counter or the sink. That’s when we began developing a few pieces of furniture just for ourselves—especially ones that would work for kids without looking like obvious “children’s furniture.” We wanted designs that we found beautiful ourselves, and that we’d actually enjoy having in our bathroom, living room, and other spaces.
At what point did your personal solution become a business idea?
Julieta: We started talking to friends about it—and everyone seemed to have the same kids’ furniture at home from the same big-box supplier. The kind you want to shove into a corner because it’s just so ugly. And honestly, it doesn’t make much sense to have multiple tables, especially when you end up throwing out the kids’ ones as soon as they outgrow them. That’s the problem with most children’s furniture: kids grow out of it, and then it’s useless. We wanted to change that—to design pieces that aren’t just for kids and don’t just serve a temporary purpose. And that aren’t an eyesore. We looked around our own living room and realized: furniture for children and adults doesn’t need to be all that different. A great example is the Stokke chair—it grows with you and can be used from infancy through adulthood.
What was your process for developing furniture that speaks to both kids and adults—in form, function, and feel?
Julieta: I did a lot of sketching, and Dirk started building prototypes out of wood. That’s when the idea of using recycled plastic came in. It has so many advantages: the furniture is super easy to clean, it works both indoors and outdoors, and it’s practically indestructible. The plastic sheets are cut using a CNC machine—a programmable, computer-controlled cutting tool—and that process actually influenced the design as well. We tried to optimize the shapes so that as little material as possible would go to waste. There was always a kind of feedback loop between design and production. So the design is largely shaped by function—but also by the insights we gained from making the pieces ourselves. Any leftover material gets melted down again or turned into smaller objects.
You describe yourselves as “plastic appreciators”—what do you mean by that?
Julieta: Sustainability has been on our minds from the very beginning—it’s part of how we live. Our first idea was to create furniture that people could use for a long time, not just during childhood or a specific life stage. That led us to the material: plastic, because it’s incredibly durable, resilient, and low-maintenance.
Dirk: …and it has all the properties we were looking for. It can get wet, it doesn’t weather or splinter like wood, it doesn’t break easily, it’s safe, and it’s completely non-toxic—kids can even put it in their mouths. Everything that makes plastic problematic—its longevity and abundance—is exactly what we’re putting to good use. There’s already so much of it out there, so why not turn it into something useful before it ends up as waste.
Julieta: It’s definitely a challenge to bring sustainability and plastic together. But we genuinely appreciate plastic for its material qualities. It’s just a shame to throw away such a strong, versatile material after just one use.
Dirk: Or not recycle it at all. I grew up in East Germany, and the idea of a circular economy worked out of necessity—because there simply wasn’t as much material to go around. Whatever existed was reused for as long as possible. Plastic wasn’t treated as garbage. We had these collection points called “Sero” where you could bring in paper, plastic, wood, or metal to be sorted and recycled. Kids would earn pocket money that way. And because there were only a few types of plastic in circulation—mainly polypropylene—recycling rates were actually very high. Even today, poorer countries often recycle more than we do, despite having fewer resources. The difference is: they have to. We don’t feel that same urgency.
Where do you source your plastic, and what exactly do you use?
Julieta: We use only HDPE plastic—that’s really important to us. It’s one of the easiest plastics to recycle and can be reused up to ten times without any loss in quality. The sheets we work with are industrial offcuts, mostly from the production of kitchenware like cutting boards.
Dirk: But some of the sources are more unusual—like decommissioned shooting range panels from the military or police. These training facilities are lined with HDPE because it absorbs bullets and dampens sound. Once those panels are no longer in use, they get recycled—and we give them a new life.
And how do your pieces get that beautiful confetti or terrazzo look?
Julieta: The plastic scraps are shredded and then pressed into sheets.
Dirk: We work with two partner companies who call us regularly to say, “Hey, we’ve got a few tons of granulate in this or that color—do you want some sheets made?” Then they press the panels for us. When we first started, it all seemed pretty straightforward—sheets were always available. But over time, they became harder to get and more expensive. Like many other industries, this one was hit by supply chain issues during and after COVID.
Raw materials are in short supply these days.
Julieta: Yes—especially building materials.
Dirk: In the two years we’ve been producing, the price of recycled plastic has nearly doubled!
What usually happens to these industrial plastic sheets made from recycled material?
Dirk: These sheets are usually used to support cranes or to stabilize the ground for heavy transport—like when wind turbines are installed out in the fields. Without them, the equipment would sink into the soft soil. Temporary roads are often built using large plastic panels, typically around 3 by 6 meters in size.
Proof of just how strong and resilient the material can be.
Julieta: Take our step stool, for example—it starts to flex slightly at around 90 kilos, but it doesn’t break.
Dirk: You can even place a hot pot on it without any problem.
Julieta: Or an iron. I actually tested that—and nothing happens right away. Our whole idea is to create pieces that people can use for a very long time. That’s why we’re planning to offer a buy-back service. If someone no longer wants or needs the furniture, they can send it back to us. We can easily reuse the material—it gets shredded again and pressed into new sheets. The really small leftover pieces are currently sent to a partner studio in Poland. They melt them down and make new items—like combs, which are also available in our shop. We don’t have our own injection molding machine yet to melt the material ourselves.
Do you see the collection growing further? I spotted some smaller pieces like soap dishes in your shop…
Julieta: The soap dishes are the result of a lovely collaboration with a Berlin-based soap label that compresses its leftover soap scraps into new bars. That created a look very similar to our trays. Both are great recycled products that make smart use of waste materials—and have real value. HDPE is especially well-suited for bathrooms. Moisture doesn’t bother it at all, and it’s super easy to clean. There are so many possible uses for this material.
Dirk:
For now, we’re sticking with the small collection and focusing on refining the production process. Some pieces still generate too much leftover material. We’re constantly looking for ways to optimize the sheet layouts and reduce offcuts as much as possible. We’ve been thinking about creating a stacking game, for example—or other small objects that can make use of those leftover bits.
It sounds like an ongoing story—we wish you continued success and look forward to seeing what’s next!
Minimono’s furniture is available for purchase through their online shop.
