Anees Mekhri was always into art, but her only thought – ‘What if it could be functional too?’ That led her roving creative eye (and mind) to stumble upon the aesthetics of furniture design. At 29, the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology alumnus has recently launched her range containing 13 pieces of furniture that she calls Malabar for a popular retailer, something that is sure to remind you of your summers at your grandparents’.
“My exposure to art came in many forms,” she explains. Anees recollects that her mother dabbled in textile craft – knit work, embroidery, appliqué and crochet, something that she taught her at the age of nine. Her granduncle who is hearing impaired and mute, let his paintings speak for him and was only too glad that another artist was born into a family of doctors. But her love for making furniture that she’s grown up with probably goes back to her grandfather’s collection of the rarest remnants of the colonial Raj.
“Most Bangalore homes used to have a similar feel – the typical South Indian verandahs, corridors and courtyards combined with the rich colonial furniture or simple plantation furniture: a common style in ancestral homes. My grandad’s house was one of these. It had everything from large expansive desks to dinner wagons, ten-seater tables, medallion chairs, regal ornate sofas, the works. All these are influencers for most of my designs,” she says, channeling them all into her own collection of chaises, camel-back sofas, barrister bookshelves, study tables and dining sets at Urban Ladder.
Nudge her for her USP and she grins, “I don’t want to sound brag-y,” she tells us. “But my peers have always told me I have the ability to translate the old into the new, have an eye and knowledge of most period furniture.”
While in college, Anees also won the Idiom Scholarship, the Chandawarkar Scholarship Programme and Commendation Award at her graduation for the most innovative and unique project based on collapsible honeycomb furniture.
Her sustainability and eco-conscious furniture principle also dictated her earlier job – manufacturing furniture that was collapsible and used recycled kraft paper! When she’s not churning out prototypes, Anees wears several hats, “My other passions involve reading, painting, doodling (cartoons aplenty), rock climbing, soccer, bike rides, motorcycles, hoarding beautiful stationery, cats or anything with fur and paws and feathers.”
But her dreams often go back to furniture. “Someday, I hope to have my own label, my own brand of furniture and a nice cozy cafe that I work at too,” she says, this time dreaming out aloud.
