A Childhood Passion /
Handcrafted precision designed to captivate
From 1.6-metre-high spiral wooden lamps to cascading coffee tables,
Christchurch-based furniture designer Paul Harding-Browne of No Boundaries
Furniture is drawing attention with his furniture designs that are both ecologically
asked when his love of furniture making began, Paul Harding-Browne fondly recalls his father’s influence whose standard answer to ‘Can we buy a....?’ was ‘Let’s see if we can make it’.
‘We didn’t have a television for most of our childhood,’ shares Paul, ‘and I can barely remember a moment when we weren’t designing, creating or building something. I was one of four boys and we all went in different creative directions but we all amassed a lot of practical and technical skills well before we left school, because our father took the time to teach us.’
The decision to start a custom-made furniture making business in 2008 from scratch came after several years of making furniture for family and friends and then selling a few
friendly and naturally beautiful, yet design provocative and captivating.
pieces. Paul’s earlier work in plastics manufacturing, quality assurance, health and safety and IT gave him skills that served him well in setting up the business.
Another important strategy that helped the business grow surely and steadily was balance. ‘We didn’t take big risks as we knew that most new businesses fail, so we made it our goal to have a sustainable business as well as a sustainable life. With a young family we definitely did not do the “leap and the net will appear” kind of strategy. We had a debt-free policy and my wife Deb and I continued to work part-time until there was a steady stream of work in the business for both of us.’
An early request to make a huge two-seater spiral deckchair was challenging and took a few months to make. However, it was during this time that Paul realised that
the more difficult a project, the more he enjoyed it. This experience spawned his business plan: to make or fix anything at all that people wanted made of wood.
The double spiral deckchair was also a catalyst to creating other spiral-themed furniture. Not wanting to throw out the leftover wood offcuts, Paul began experimenting and making lamps and tables with curves giving the counter-intuitive effect of flowing water. His creations also visually represented his business dreams: that there were no limits to what he was prepared to make.
Another source of inspiration for Paul is the natural form of trees which he incorporates first by drawing and then making scale models to see if it will work. ‘All this can take months before I cut my first piece of wood. I love nature. When we aren’t working in the business, we are hiking or mountain biking. I guess a lot of that comes from growing up on the West Coast, and Deb’s family came from the Mackenzie Country so she is always keen to get to the mountains as well.’
Caring for the environment, Paul takes care to source his timber from companies that have sustainability accreditation such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) PEFC (The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification). In addition to this, No Boundaries Furniture up-cycles, repairs and restores furniture.
Creating a workshop/studio and gallery at home has allowed Paul, not unlike his father, to teach his girls a lot of practical skills. Brie, 17, and Sarah, 14, have grown up designing and creating their own furniture, and have done quite a lot of paid work in the business too. ‘It will be interesting to see the directions that they take, but we have tried to resource their interests and definitely encouraged them to follow their curiosity and to develop what they enjoy doing.’
Paul began experimenting and making lamps and tables with curves giving the counter-intuitive effect of flowing water.