Eco Friendly Furniture for the BVI [Photo Gallery]

Cultivated Creativity with Caribbean Colours – Eco Friendly Furniture for the BVI

Photography provided by Arawak Interiors

No stranger to innovative and unique design, this season will unveil Arawak Interiors’ exciting variety of trendy, recycled furniture and a collection of hand-crafted mermaid dolls.

Roy Keegan—Arawak’s owner and buyer –who is firmly familiar with the vast Balinese influence on BVI architectirual design and a veteran in its distinctive style, has spent the past summer months exploring Bali for new assortments for his recycled furniture series.

Recycled furniture is made from reclaimed materials – Arawak has previously stocked pieces of the eco-friendly persuasion, exemplified in their popular products crafted from old Javan fishing boats. The attraction of these pieces was the striking fusion of colour combinations, that gently emitted mystery of the sparkling waters they once glided through.

Roy enjoys working with recycled materials, because the completed products provide a unique and alluring appearance in a home. He is especially excited by this recent style of furniture due to its exclusivity, delivering a distinctive, functional appendage to interior design that’s also a work of art with a story behind it. The vibrant colours of the furniture, synthesise perfectly with the relaxed vibes of Caribbean living and contribute to the ‘green effort’, since they originate from recycled resources.

YKPA, ‘Yayasan Kasih Peduli Anak’, a non-profit organisation that provides care, shelter and education for the neglected or abused Balinese youth also employs local, homeless children to make handicrafts, providing the younger generation with a vital source of income. Roy sponsors the organisation every time he visits Bali and on his recent trip, discovered that they had managed to craft mermaid dolls in a variety of different sizes. He intends to stock these dolls for purchase at Arawak with the money helping to provide basic clothing, food and medicine for the Balinese orphanage.

The interior designer recalls that during his previous buying-expeditions, conspicuous colours have often caught his peripheral vision. Once he has seen items that meet his preferences, the challenge has been to seek sets of pieces that would synchronise for harmonious aesthetics tailored to a Caribbean home.

His journey through Bali’s street retailers resulted in his acquisition of a range of reclaimed metal stools and chairs in rustic blues and reds, envisaging these pieces as complements to bathrooms, kitchens, hallways or small decks.

Whilst travelling through the Ubud Mountains of Bali, Roy also discovered furniture made from old Balinese and Javanise trucks.

“The truckers paint the wooden parts of their trucks in their favourite colours or designs, [and] eventually, these pieces of wood are used to create furniture similar to the furniture made from Javan fishing boats,” said the pioneering entrepreneur. “However, the trucks’ wood has gone through different weather conditions, therefore this furniture has its own special appearance,” he continued.

Arawak’s successful line of recycled furniture has shown that reclaimed materials can be transformed and utilised in the most unpredictable, astonishing and most significantly, attractive ways. Roy commented that, “In the Caribbean, standard oil drums are mostly turned into giant barbecue pits for open air restaurants. In contrast, the Indonesians choose to craft their old oil drums into brightly coloured, mounted fish murals.”

The owner discovered these surprising pieces of art by good fortune. He was drawn to the intricate layers of oil-drum cuttings used to resemble the scales and fins of the schools of fish.

After discussions with his supplier, Roy intends to fulfil custom orders of these recycled products with similar wall pieces crafted to client specifications.

With the combination of creativity and resourcefulness, the use of recycled materials bestows limitless potential on the furniture that can be conceived. On a more personal note for owners of such furniture, the items are a one-of-a-kind piece of functional art.

Below: Arawak Interiors line of eco friendly furniture and artistic pieces