MY COUNTRY BUSINESS
Kate and Abdollah Nafisi produce bespoke pieces and sculpture from their eponymous studio
There’s something special about a business that starts with a love story. Kate and Abdollah (Abi for short), the married founders of bespoke furniture and sculpture studio Nafisi, craft furniture ‘with heart and soul’ while aiming for a good work/life balance. ‘I wanted to be able to spend more quality time with my new husband,’ says Kate, smiling.
The couple own a pretty farmhouse cottage on the same site as Abi’s family. ‘We live in a community, with our family on the same land,’ he says. ‘We wanted to move away from the pollution in London and to be able to look up to a sky where you can actually see the stars at night.’ Their studio is just a stone’s throw from their front door and the home that they have restored.
‘We work together very well, our masculine and feminine sides merge with each other in a very complementary way,’ says Kate. Recognising that they made a good partnership, the pair decided to combine
Abi’s ten years’ experience as a woodworker with Kate’s design skills – she had previously worked as a tech software designer for Barclays, Facebook and Pentagram NYC – and set up Nafisi. ‘It just made sense to move from designing digital user experiences to
designing physical ones that people can touch and hold, and which they’re able to keep and pass on for generations,’ says Kate.
Abi’s motivation to build furniture and sculpture with his hands was inspired by growing up in Iran with his parents.
His mother is an architect; his father a scientist and inventor who had set up a laboratory in their back garden. ‘I saw my parents succeed and my father winning awards on TV for his inventions, which made me realise anything can happen in the back of your garden,’ remembers Abi. So, inspired, he set himself the aim of becoming a master craftsperson. Abi is fascinated with Persian carpets and rugs, and even lived with nomadic tribes in the deserts and mountains of Iran for a while. ‘To create a piece of furniture that was worthy of sitting on top of the beautiful Persian rugs was my first trigger to get into carpentry,’ he says. ‘I wanted to design furniture inspired by nature, that had an element of improvisation to it, just like the rugs I admired.’
Working with wood as a material can be unpredictable, throwing up lots of challenges during the making process. So the couple focus on choosing good wood with lots of character. They take care to store it at the
What we love most... ‘Playing and experimenting in the workshop together, chisels in hand, dancing to a solid tune blaring from the workshop speakers’
right temperature, and keep it a long time to minimise it bending or splitting. ‘Quality is the most important value for us,’ says Kate. ‘None of the furniture or sculptural pieces we make leave our workshop unless we are in love with them. Our aim is to create a piece of furniture that if a furniture restorer looks at it in 300 years, they will take their hat off at its quality.’ It’s not a quick process, and the couple are always mindful about sustainability and trying to reduce their carbon footprint at the same time. Even their studio space is filled with plants, which are good for improving the air quality, giving the space a botanical style.
During the early days of the business, Kate’s income covered their living expenses so that all the money they earned from
Nafisi could go back into the business, which gave them a great boost. The couple also realise they are fortunate to have access to a workshop space on their land, but the business did need some investment to start it up, so the couple used some of their savings.
‘We live and breathe our business so we make sure we do what we love,’ says
Kate. They appreciate being able to spend time together, enjoying the surrounding countryside. ‘You’ll often find us running in the fields, cycling in the local lanes together on our bikes, and cooking our meals on the fire pit outside,’ says Kate. ‘By investing in our business we are investing in our future together, which means a future of having fun in the workshop,’ she says.
They didn’t need to invest in any tools initially as Abi had collected equipment over the years from his previous carpentry jobs. But disaster struck when all their tools were stolen. ‘We didn’t have insurance – that was a complete learning curve and a mistake we wouldn’t make again,’ says Abi. ‘We were forced to start over again, working even harder to earn more money to replace the tools. We also hunted out second-hand tools and equipment.’
When Abi and Kate deliver finished products to their clients they are often met with gasps and squeals of delight. They listen to their clients’ wishes and make sure they deliver what they want, although they always leave 30 per cent of the design to unfold as they go along. This sounds like a counter-intuitive business model when entering the luxury interiors market, but their clients love this element of surprise as they trust that the quality and craftsmanship are always at the highest levels. ‘Life is short and I’d rather spend it living simply with my best friend, making quality pieces which our customers will treasure as much as we do,’ says Kate.
NAFISI, TETHERSTONES STABLES, HAMMERPOND ROAD, PLUMMERS PLAIN, HORSHAM RH13 6PE, NAFISI.DESIGN.