Harmony: A Table Born From a Collaboration With Jochen Leën

Some pieces start with a client brief. Harmony was created together with Jochen Leën, and is now on permanent display at his hotel La Butte aux Bois in Lanaken. It’s one of the most personal pieces to ever leave our atelier.

A Piece Built to Belong

La Butte aux Bois is a setting where gemstones and natural materials are already part of the experience. For a table to earn its place there, it couldn’t just look luxurious — it had to hold its own in a room where rare stones are already the standard. That’s the brief that shaped Harmony.

The Amethyst Geode at the Heart of Harmony

At the center of Harmony sits a genuine amethyst geode — not a cut or polished stone, but the mineral in something closer to its natural form, with its characteristic crystalline structure and depth of purple visible directly in the tabletop. Where our gemstone inlay pieces typically use shaped or cut stone fragments, working with a geode meant designing the entire table around one extraordinary natural object, rather than fitting stone into a predetermined pattern.

The resin around it is built up in careful layers, both to protect the geode’s natural texture and to let light pass through and around its crystal formations — so the piece changes character depending on how and where it catches the light in the room.

Why This One Mattered

Every Leonardo Gravina piece is meant to feel personal, but Harmony pushed that further than usual — there was very little room for anything that felt generic in a setting built entirely around rare, natural materials.

It’s also, in a quieter way, a piece about place. Both La Butte aux Bois and our own atelier are rooted in Lanaken.

Seeing Harmony in Person

Harmony is on permanent display at La Butte aux Bois in Lanaken, where it sits within a setting that was, in many ways, built for exactly this kind of piece. If you’re visiting the hotel, it’s worth seeking out in person — photographs capture the color of the amethyst, but not the way the piece shifts as the light in the room changes throughout the day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I commission a table with a similar geode inlay?

Yes. While Harmony itself is a unique piece created for this specific collaboration, we can design a comparable table featuring a genuine gemstone or geode inlay as part of our gemstone and gold leaf collection.

Is the amethyst in Harmony a single natural geode?

Yes — the centerpiece is a genuine amethyst geode, incorporated in a form close to its natural structure rather than cut into uniform pieces.

Where can I see Harmony?

Harmony is on permanent display at La Butte aux Bois, a five-star hotel in Lanaken, Belgium.

How does a piece like this differ from a standard commission?

The design process is similar — we start with the vision and the setting the piece needs to live in — but a piece like this typically involves a longer creative dialogue than a standard commission.

How do I start my own custom design?

Reach out through our contact page to begin a design consultation, or explore our gemstone collection for inspiration. You can also email info@leonardogravina.com or call +32(0)487.85.37.37.