Design
PortsideCafé Furniture Studio over the years…
JAN 30, 2023 | By Team ELLE DECOR India
The offline journey of PortsideCafé Furniture Studio started from a small store in 2007. Currently the store in New Delhi houses all the latest designs by PortsideCafé, manufactured in their factory located at Noida by a team of 150 skilled designers, karigars and administrators. The skilled hands of the experienced karigars have been producing top notch leather products since the beginning of PortsideCafé’s journey. With the development of times, the karigars have also developed the skills of working on materials other than leather. The shared enthusiasm of exploring new materials and techniques of the designers and the karigars has resulted in the production of unique and innovative furniture in recent days.
PortsideCafé is a brand which is eternally on the lookout for inspirations from everyday life of travels, of unapologetic nostalgia. Each piece of furniture has a bit of a back story – a raison d’être so to speak. With influences that are as diverse as old classic movies, rock music, books, a colour, a building or even a flower. This is what makes their products so much more relatable and personal.
They exude a warmth that is old-worldly at first glance but are thoroughly modern in their interpretations and executions. In the early years of the brand, the focus was on vintage designs and intricate detailing on luxurious leather furniture. These days, exploring new materials and forms and shifting the attention from leather to wood and metal has become the brand’s design language.
To increase its reach, the brand has been showcasing its talent in many domestic and international trade fairs. PortsideCafé mesmerized the international customers with their work in four different occasions at the design capital, Milan (two different occasions) and at Paris (two other different occasions). They have been showcasing at India Design from 2013 onwards and won the Designer of the year award for 2016. The brand displayed their products in the internationally acclaimed domestic fair called EPCH (Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts) since 2014. The exhibitions were much appreciated and they bagged the award for the best stall of 2015 and 2018.
They have also won the Elle Décor designer of the year award for 2014. From 3rd to 6th October, 2019, the brand single handedly hosted an exhibition named ‘Intimate’ at the Lado Sarai store where many other designer brands like Gomads displayed their works. Other than satisfying their own patrons, PortsideCafé products have also made their way into the collections of some well known brands like Purple Turtle, Bangalore; Tata Cliq and Artisera.
To go with the times of rapidly developing social media and to enhance the business and reach more people PortsideCafé introduced themselves to the world of social media by launching its Instagram handle (Portsidecafe_Furniture) in august 2014. Since then they have received a lot of love & response from their followers. The people of PortsideCafé have always believed in growing organically. The happiness of the triumph of as little an achievement by serendipitous ways is other worldly. After more than 1300 posts (1338 to be precise) PortsideCafé achieved the milestone of 10k followers on 22 September 2022 and the number hasn’t stopped growing since.
During the difficult period of covid-19, PortsideCafé realized the need of having an e-commerce website and the brand’s journey in the e-commerce world started. Now the clients can safely look and explore the unique furniture options from the comfort and safety of their own homes and order the pieces that they love. The doors of the Lado Sarai store are always open for those who like to touch & feel the products before giving the thumps up.
By limiting and curating the brand’s vast product offering, the patrons of PortsideCafé have picked up some of their best sellers (out of the 300+ odd designs they have manufactured over the years). The buyers can browse through the different collections of furniture to fit their functional and aesthetic needs on portsidecafe.com, but direct orders cannot be placed through that website. For that purpose, a second website named portsidecafeshop.com has been formed, which is a fully functioning e-commerce website where the purchasers can directly place orders and get them delivered to their doorstep.
You may also like: PortsideCafé gives a glimpse into 7 iconic pieces from its collection that hearten any room in your house!