DOING AWAY WITH DISPOSABLE DESIGN
Vancouver companies creating household items that are meant to last
People are becoming much more conscious about the things they’re bringing into their homes, observes Joe Parenteau, co-founder of Vancouver tableware company Fable Home.
Parenteau founded Fable with business partners Tina Luu and Max Tim just over a year ago and they launched their first collection in April of this year. Their bowls, plates and cutlery are designed in Vancouver, and manufactured by a company in Portugal, chosen, says Parenteau, for its ethical business practices. He says the company recycles all its clay waste, along with the water that runs through the factory, and pays its employees fair wages.
“They’re a team of artisans, so they pick up each piece, they glaze each piece. Our ceramics all have exposed clay on the bottom so you can really feel the clay in your hand,” he says.
Parenteau and his partners come from the tech sector, so he says they’re trained to look at systems and come up with better solutions.
One of the problems they identified with the way people purchase tableware is that if you buy a set of plates and one breaks, you usually have to go out and get another set to replace it, acquiring more dishes than you need.
With Fable, he says, if someone breaks a plate or bowl, they’re able to order a single dish from the company.
“In a world of mass consumption, people are just using and disposing of things. We’re trying to combat that with something that’s a bit more timeless and is going to last people a lifetime.”
He says Fable has also partnered with local charity Mealshare in an effort to give something back to the local community.
“If someone buys a set of plates or bowls or whatever, we donate one meal to Mealshare. We’re working on quarterly events, where we bring together strangers and friends to come enjoy some great food and great wine, with all profits going to Mealshare.”
Their next event is on Dec. 5 at
Mount Pleasant co-working space Pavilion, hosted by chef Juno Kim.
“It’s going to be a wine tasting with food pairing,” Parenteau says.
Celina Dalrymple has been perfecting the art of upholstery and custom furniture production over the past 20 years as founder and owner of Vancouver’s Fabulous Furnishings and Upholstery. This month, Dalrymple launched an online furniture store, ffabb, with partner Najeeb Dawary, which offers custom furniture manufactured in their North Vancouver facility.
“We’ve compiled all the knowledge we’ve gained over the past 20 years, and the pieces people have been asking for over and over again, and put out our own collection,” Dalrymple says.
A desire to make furniture that lasts a long time and stays out of the landfills is a driving motivation for them, she says.
“In reupholstery, we’ve seen inside the guts of all types of furniture, and especially in the last several years, with the movement of the online furniture stores, we’ve seen a lot of disposable furniture and how may pieces are going to the landfill,” she says.
They receive multiple emails a day from clients requesting help fixing furniture they’ve only recently purchased, says Dalrymple.
“That was one of the biggest reasons we made the shift to making this furniture. We’d get five emails a day from people asking us to fix couches they’d just bought and the cushions were already breaking down. The frames were cracked. And people are still spending a decent amount of money, we’re just frustrated with what’s coming out on the market these days,” she says.