Siarra & Co. is an online store that designs and creates custom heirloom-quality furniture. We caught up with the store’s founder, Ashanthi Edirisinghe, for a chat on her venture.
The online store specialises in manufacturing custom pieces for their customers’ convenience. Speaking on why she decided to open up such a store, she said: “At one point, I wanted to get some items made for myself. I couldn’t find any place to get them done. That was one of the main reasons I thought I want to get something like this out there, because it was not freely available in Sri Lanka at the time.” She explained that she wanted to give her customers something different from the normal, everyday furniture one can find at a store.
The ordering process is simple; you can describe to her a concept that you have in mind and she will make it come to life for you. If you are unsure of what exactly you want, they also have many albums of projects that you can look through for inspiration.
One can even send her a picture of an item and she will recreate it for you, with a unique touch. Once the product is made, they deliver it right to your doorstep upon request, making it super convenient for the customers.
All the products are manufactured locally, using local materials and craftsmanship. She believes in empowering local crafters and contributes to the local industry by using products from here. She added that this makes it a lot cheaper than if customers were to import products. They use elements like marble, brass, copper, steel, mirror, glass, etc. to make their products stand out, so each customer has a unique piece.
Edirisinghe commented that she is not personally involved in the manufacturing process, but she takes special care to ensure that the design process goes smoothly. “I love coming up with new concepts, figuring out which element would best suit the piece, and picking the colour scheme. I’ve always had a thing for interior design; I was working in banking and finance, doing accounts for so many years, but this was always a passion that I had, which I didn’t pursue.”
She added that she is lucky that she got the opportunity to start up this page, explaining that the venture took off on a massive scale after she initially posted a couple of pictures of her designs on Facebook. She stated: “There were so many things that people wanted to have made locally, so I think that I just supplied it to a niche market.”
She also went into detail about her most distinctive creation: “It was a reception counter that we did for the clinic HeartAid Centre, and I’m quite proud of it. It was designed in a very retro style with brass and a marble top with mahogany and a laser cut at the back; all those elements put together came out beautifully.”
She added that this piece would have been otherwise difficult to manufacture in Sri Lanka because of the many elements that went into it, but they pulled it off. From there on, they were more open to challenging pieces, and the store reached new heights.
They don’t carry a stock of furniture, but Edirisinghe revealed that she was soon hoping to open up her own storeroom so that customers can look at and feel the pieces they want to purchase. She added that sometimes, they do have leftover materials, with which they put together small items and have a sale, but that hasn’t been possible since Covid hit. In 2021, she hopes that her dreams of pursuing interior design as a career could be achieved, with the opening of her own physical store.
IG: @siarraandco
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