lost in the woods
With its elegance and timeless quality, wooden furniture is a hot favourite with furniture designers
Young furniture designers cry foul at the idiom ‘wooden expression’, for they believe wood is the most beautiful material, which with the right touch can bring sheer joy to an observer.
“Wood is classic!’’ enthuse Miheer Fyzee, Sandeep Sanguru, Ipsita Johri and Ishitta Arun.
They are all designers who specialise in wooden furniture and believe that they are conceptualisers rather than designers. Wood has a timeless quality and is endowed with a trendy feel. In fact, the quartet we spoke to have been wooed by wood, so to say. So much so that they have left their previous jobs to converge on wood.
And to help them achieve their dreams is an increasing demand for made-to-order customised furniture. The contemporary buyer with an expendable income wants something unique for his/her home. The days of wanting to own what the celebrities or the next door neighbour has, has become passé. The present trend is ‘we have what other don’t’. So visits to malls, furniture marts in search of the perfect chair, table or book case are slowly but certainly diminishing.
Miheer, who is from Mumbai (www.miheerfyzee. com), says, “Many a time people don’t even know what exactly they want. They keep on hopping from one mall to another or from one shop to another in search of a perfect furniture piece without laying their hands on it. And this is where we help them get what they have been dreaming about.’’ A mechanical engineer from USA, Miheer did his Masters in Industrial Design from IIT, Bombay, and then the attraction of wood, especially Rosewood and Burma Teak, brought him to the design world of wooden furniture.
It is not as though the designers have started creating something really unique or novel. Like the neighbourhood furniturewallah they also make products, like chairs, tables, writing tables, corner stands, centre tables, book stands, cupboards, beds, bar stands, etc. But there is a difference. They have a designer’s touch which gels with the owner’s home unobtrusively, giving it a classy touch. Moreover, they give comfort their highest priority
“More than designing furniture, I put forward an idea to my clients and thus all my furniture is concept-based. Growing up in the districts of West Bengal, living in the British-constructed houses, the fascination for wooden furniture, long byzantine pillars, high ceilings and fabulous architecture fascinated me,” says Ipsita (www.aizadesigns.in) of Kolkata, who previously worked with Walt Disney Company, Sony Pictures and Tata Group but ultimately found her calling in making wood furniture.
Most designers prefer to work with teak, especially Burma Teak, which is the priciest among teak wood. But as long as there is constraint on finances no furniture can look as grand or classy and at the same time contemporary as teak does. The natural gloss and finish itself uplifts the look. Next to the teak is Mahogany, Sal wood, Beech wood and Mango wood to get the rough look in the finished piece. Most discerning buyers prefer the natural look, embellishing it with polish in order to highlight the grains on the surface.
Customers though want classy products, they definitely don’t want antique or royal looking ones. The preference is for clean, neat and contemporary appearance. Furthermore, many prefer bare wooden products to upholstered ones.
Elaborating on the changes in the fur-niture buying scene, Mumbai-based Ishitta Arun, daughter of folk singer and actor Ila Arun, another entrant in the world of wood furniture design, says, “Till a couple of years ago, people visited upmarket stores or got furniture from Bali, China or Jodhpur. The novelty of outsourcing furniture has vanished. Now everyone wants to be unique. I love to work with Burma teak and also reclaimed wood. And with the right karigar, wooden furniture can come alive.’’
No doubt, people want to have a unique style in furniture along with a high comfort level. But according to Sandeep Sangaru of Bangalore’s Sangaru Design Studio (www. sangaru.com), today’s customers, especially the youth who are setting up new homes or buying second weekend homes, are willing to experiment with the material.
Hitherto labeled as garden or outdoor furniture, bamboo or cane furniture is fast catching up the imagination of those who certainly want to own slightly different furnishings.
A National Institute of Design alumnus, Sandeep got fascinated with cane when he was doing a stint at Agartala.
Though he had started working at Hyderabad on film sets, he too realised his calling was wood, especially cane and started working with local craft people. “There is not much work done in cane furniture except in the utility area of garden or outdoor furniture. There are so many varieties of cane. Their light weight is good for the present day nuclear families living in flats. Moreover, cane can be given any shape by bending it, which is not possible with any other wood.’’
So, if you plan to furnish your house, go for wooden conceptualised furniture and not for plastic, metal with rexin or leather topped ones, and be ready for loads of appreciation.
