Ever wondered how we design our furniture? How do our pieces look and feel the way they do? Come behind the scenes and see their journey.
Source
Our pieces are largely made from recycled wood and the starting point for most pieces in our store are architectural objects derived from traditional Indian dwellings. These buildings range from simple yet artistic village homes to mansions of the wealthy replete with detailed craftsmanship. Take for example the blue display shelves shown here. The wood for this piece is recycled from old doors and windows. It’s style is recreated from an actual door/window niche style.
Info Byte: In the olden days the niches inevitably contained oil lamps (nicely protected from the wind in these openings) and/protective deities. The importance of having a well lit porch and good vibes at the entrance to your home could never be ignored. Especially since you don’t know what animal, creepy crawly or unknown stranger lurks outside your door!
Here’s another example of a console for which the arch style comes from a door/window frame. We take this design style and build an item around it.
In some cases we are able to retrieve panels intact from doorways or other such architectural carvings and design around it.
The peacock blue console featured here shows one such carving.
We use sections of traditional doors to create one of a kind sideboards featured here.
Info Byte: Note the iron strips and iron knobs on the doors. Many of the doors we use have beautiful ironwork on them. This feature is especially characteristic of main doors as the iron provides armour against intruders and invading armies mounted on horses and elephants trying to break the door down
Proportions and design
Once we have figured out our source, the next step in the process is design feasibility. Not all pieces are created equal and not all designs too. What we mean by this is that fit of the design, with the proportions of the architectural object and the actual wood parts used is very important. A lay person may not realize it but even a 5-10cm change in length, breadth or height can throw a furniture piece of its game. This part requires working extremely closely with our traditional craftsmen – many of them who have wisdom and wood working skills passed down from generation to generation. We respect their knowledge and rely on it to get the pieces right.
Construction
All our pieces are hand crafted by traditional craftsmen using traditional age old practices. It takes about 8-12 weeks post conceptualization to getting a piece physically in our store. This includes prepping, crafting and finishing process. Our customers love our staples and ask us for repeats and if possible ( we find the right wood, architectural object part etc) we oblige. However, we always caveat in a hand finished and had crafted process no two pieces can be truly alike. We also love the serendipity of designing and finding new design styles.
Finishing
We believe finishing is one of the most important parts of our process. For us it’s a labour of love. We are extremely selective and reject many pieces till we get the look we absolutely love.
Info byte: Only about 1 in every 15 pieces we are considering makes it to our Artful House collection. This is post conceptualization, design, construction and finishing.
If you are discerning like us and want to get a piece that has gone through painstaking finishing processes to get the perfect look, drop by our store and get yourself a beautiful find!
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