Classic meets contemporary
By Hiba Mahamadi | Society | Published 10 years ago
The Copper and Steel showroom has been teasing its decor enthusiast Facebook followers for two long months about the upcoming launch of four new, furniture and accessories brands. Therefore, the May 12 reveal of Zeba Faruqui’s ‘Maze,’ Mehar Chohan’s ‘White by Mehar’, ‘Tahir Mahmood Design’ and ‘Sadia Rasheed’ by the same names, was much anticipated.
Besides the fact that both were debutants in Karachi (Lahore being their home turf), Rasheed and Chohan’s collections had little else in common. The former chose to work with a more natural, charcoal grey and lime green, ocean-inspired colour palette. A part-grey/part-green sofa, with cushions sporting a mixture of the two colours, was contrasted with a white, circular centre table with silver metallic legs — reminiscent of a trampoline, or even a single layer wedding cake — and a white end table.
On the other hand, Chohan’s patch-work chairs and sofa, the latter with heavy use of beige and a few splashes of hot pink, turquoise and black, easily stood out as the more contemporary pieces. A multicoloured, patch-work table, with X-intersecting legs — very similar to a butler’s tray table — was paired with traditional lion-head, ring pulls on each drawer.
Tahir Mahmood specialises in turning everyday items from the Indo-Pak region into inspiring pieces of interior decor. His belan-(rolling pin) inspired lamp, with a white shade and base, that was used to accessorise Sadia Rasheed’s furniture, is testament to that. Other items displayed from his collection included rosewood pestle and mortars (with one partially made of brass), steel and aluminium ‘Poni’ tea strainers, and several latoos (spinning tops), all painted in combinations of bright colours —sunshine yellow, flamingo pink, sky blue and red.
White was the colour of choice in Zeba Faruqi’s collection. All-white sofas and armchairs, with screen-printed geometric patterns in chocolate brown and black, were complemented by cushions in the same colours.
Copper and Steel’s current collection offers a refreshing range of contemporary pieces, in a spectrum of rainbow colours, off-set with accents of black and white.
This article was originally published in Newsline’s June 2014 issue.
Hiba Mahamadi was an Editorial Assistant at Newsline