Monica Shekar discovered her love for furniture design while pursuing a degree in economics in the United States. Today, she has switched track and runs Be Vintage, a firm which specialises in bespoke vintage furniture and accessories inspired by retro Victorian designs. Monica is part of a small group of furniture makers who produce custom-built options for customers who want that extra level of personalisation.
“There is always more value for something that is customised,” says Shekar. “And it is the same for furniture, which is an extension of a person. So people tend to see bespoke furniture as a long-term investment.” Despite her work not having Indian roots, she says her customers have clear ideas when they come to her with requests. “Thanks to Pinterest, people know what they are looking for, which makes my job as a designer so much easier.”
While Shekar opened Be Vintage in 2013, once the online boom took off, Sheila Baru began making bespoke furniture out of recycled wood over two decades ago, leading people to call her crazy. Now, 23 years later, her brand, Maram, which she runs with husband Krishna, is still going strong.
“Indians are spoilt for choice because we are used to getting clothes and furniture made. But we should also be more environment friendly. I keep telling people that trees won’t be there forever,” says Baru, who uses recycled elements for parts of the furniture. “My ideal piece of furniture would have something old in it, maybe just the legs, or a panel. While we usually adjust our designs for customer preferences, sometimes we make exceptions, such as when we build something for an elderly person.”
Both Shekar and Sheila concur that the demographic they cater to is usually young couples who are looking to settle down. Both also get requests to restore old furniture that has some sentimental value attached to it. “Sometimes people bring things that belonged to their grandparents, which they would like to get restored. Those projects tend to be challenging, but are also very enjoyable,” says Shekar. “The other challenges of selling items online are often marketing and logistics.”
This disconnect between makers and the mass market is something Kabir Bhasin saw up close as a co-founder of furniture rental platform Furlenco. In 2014, he decided to set up a platform for makers to help solve this problem. After nearly two years of research and auditing, along with co-founder Raghav Bhadaskar, he started MadeforMe, a portal that allows users to submit requests for custom projects to a collective of designers. “In my experience with Furlenco, we realised that selling online is tough, and there are a lot of talented makers who are skilled workers but not marketers,” says Bhasin. “So we decided that doing it as a collective made sense.” MadeforMe has a team that assists makers and buyers with marketing and logistics, allowing the work of the members to have wider reach. “It’s only been a few months since we started operations, but the response has been good. We’ve shipped to Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and are just completing an order to Dehradun.”
The main challenge in this line of work, says Krishna, is labour. “The problem is not skill, as the work is more laborious than skill-based. But finding good, honest people who show up to work consistently can sometimes be a challenge. However, much like any industry, the workers are our backbone.”
According to Bhasin, bespoke furniture will always be a niche category, and will have a space in the market, regardless of other options cropping up.
“The online furniture market is about four years old, and if you look at it as a pyramid, they cater to the bottom half, the mass market. But now the market has matured, and people have more demands, and don’t want the same things everyone else has.” This is a sentiment Shekar agrees with.
“Customisation will never go out of fashion. Everyone wants something to call just their own.”
