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Full view of The Homecoming Bench, a 2003 custom maple furniture design by Shaun Tai, featuring three graduated curved backrests, a circular cutout, a continuous flat seat, and a slatted lower shelf inspired by traditional Chinese craftsmanship.

The Homecoming Bench

Designed in 2003 for a Rosewood House client in Oakland, The Homecoming Bench transforms the ritual of returning home into a study of family, proportion, and belonging. Three sculpted backrests rise from American maple, drawing on the elegance of classical Chinese furniture and the quiet beauty of everyday life.

2003

  • Furniture Designer · CAD Design · Production Documentation

The Art of Belonging

A child's world is measured differently.The height of a table. The reach of a hand.The distance between the floor and a parent's shoulder.

100+ Years

a lifetime of use, imagined in American maple

Shaun Tai's 2003 maple bench design, showing three curved backrests of graduated heights, a circular opening, a continuous seat, and a slatted shoe shelf.
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The Measure of a Family.

A child's world is measured in inches. The height of a table. The reach of a hand. In designing The Homecoming Bench, Shaun gave each family member a different height, yet a common place to rest. American maple lends its pale warmth and fine grain to gently curved backrests, rounded rails, and slender dowels that hold the shoes of those coming and going. A circle carved through the tallest backrest recalls 虛實相生, the Chinese principle of presence and absence giving meaning to one another. He developed the original design and production CAD drawings for this $3,500 commission, guided by a simple sentiment: 三人同坐，一生為家, three sit together, a lifetime makes a home. Someday, the children will outgrow the backs made for them, leave for distant places, and perhaps return with children of their own. The maple will deepen in color, the family will change, and the bench will remain.