In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, one Vancouver-based interior design firm moves forward with its new home décor collection.
By Rachel Gallaher
Photographed by Carl Ostberg
At the beginning of August, Marrimor made a bold choice.
In what would have been a standard business move any other time, the Vancouver-based interior design firm decided to launch a new product line amid the continued uncertainty of the current global pandemic.
“We’ve actually been developing the product line for three years now,” says Marrimor partner Lauren Bugliarisi. “We were planning to launch at ICFF this year, but obviously that didn’t quite go how we had planned it, so we decided to do a digital launch instead. We were ready to go and we were passionate about bringing these products to the market. We believe that that world still needs beautiful things right now.”
“Even more so now!” adds Marrimor’s founder, Tanja Hinder. “People need pieces that you look at and they make you smile. Something that has a fun, cheeky, surprising element.”
The starring piece of the firm’s new launch, the Toof (a clever table/pouf hybrid) checks all the right boxes. Along with a series of Toss pillows, it was released under the tagline ‘Nice Things for Nonconformists.’ Toof was the result of a need for a very specific piece for a residential interior project the company was working on a few years ago. The inspiration for its shape came from a late-night Google rabbit-hole search by Hinder. She stumbled across images of vintage Coke cans and was struck by the pull top feature.
With a base made from sheen powder-coated metal, and a pouf available in various textiles (alpaca, wool, linen, mohair, velvet, and boucle), Toof can be customized in an array of colors including gold, red, purple, indigo, and teal.
“We wanted to create a piece that was easily incorporated with other furniture, but was also architecturally stunning on its own,” Hinder explains.
Although the duo has just launched its first products, Bugliarisi and Hinder are already thinking about what’s next. Ideas on the table include an outdoor version of the Toof, “some kind of crazy coffee table,” according to Bugliarisi, or a sofa. “It takes time to fine-tune and prototype,” she says, “but we’re excited to jump into the next thing.”
