‘Colour warriors’ go bold, bohemian
Globally sourced furniture, accessories and textiles firm began with a trip to India
Pamela Arora and Tanya Sharma have a habit of jumping into each other’s sentences, even if it’s just to add an enthusiastic “Exactly!” or a heartfelt, “That’s so true!” The tagteam talk reflects the connection that’s grown between them since meeting close to a decade ago, when they bonded over a shared experience of infertility.
That story ended happily for both — Arora has triplets and Sharma has twins. But another story began when the two decided that rather than return to high-octane corporate careers after childbirth, they would together launch Turquoise Palace, turquoisepalace.com, a company offering globally sourced and handcrafted furniture, decor and textiles to the design trade.
The name came from a story Sharma’s grandmother used to tell her as a child.
“A king and a queen lived in a wonderful turquoise palace that shined in the sunlight,” she recounts. “They had a little boy who could not go outside, so they decided to bring the world inside. They filled the palace with beautiful things from around the world they went to find for him. That seemed so reflective of what we wanted to do.”
“It didn’t occur to us until someone told us that the “T” and the “P” were the first letters of our two names,” Arora laughs.
The adventure began with a trip to India, where Sharma was born and raised, and where Arora has familial roots.
“It was insane — the middle of summer and 50 degrees in the shade,” Arora says. “But we came back with a container full of beautiful things that we stored in our garages. We just began showing them to people.”
“I think we starting breaking some stereotypes,” Arora says. “A lot of the stuff coming out of India had a sort of flea-market feel. We knew there were exquisite, refined, gorgeous treasures that people would love. When everything was gone in six months — we decided we were on to something.”
The company transitioned to a showroom at SOFA (Source of Furniture and Accessories), visitsofa.com, a trade-only design centre in Mississauga. It was there that, during the recently-held Canadian Furniture Show, the pair hosted a standing-room-only presentation by Jessica Berkwitz of Selamat Designs.
Turquoise Palace is the exclusive Canadian distributor for the San-Francisco based Selamat. The epitome of bohemian chic, its style mixes rattan, metal, raw and finished woods, and lacquered finishes in well-crafted pieces for a look that’s both elegant and livable.
Turquoise Palace also inked a deal with popular design site wayfair.com to sell a selection of their handmade pillows directly to consumers, and has partnered with Canadian department store chain Simons, which is adding items from Turquoise Palace to their online offering. They have also begun representing Seeds Concept, a new bedding brand from Portuguese textile giant Ribial.
As the business continues to grow, Arora and Sharma are noticing an increased appetite for the bold, bright decor they both love, and a movement away from the safe beiges and greys that defined design for much of the last decade.
“The Canadian market is getting bolder and bolder every sales cycle,” Sharma says.
“And in every cycle more and more people buy more and more things they have not traditionally bought from us. Quebec and British Columbia tend to be the first to embrace colour and take risks. But once things start selling there, Toronto follows soon.”