Re-shaping Sri Lankan handcrafted furniture - PRIMROSE

Thilan Abeyaratne launched PRIMROSE in May 2019, with the vision of designing and producing unique handcrafted solid wood furniture that blends mid-century design with the classical craftsmanship techniques of Sri Lanka.

For a business largely marketed to tourist-friendly villas and boutique hotels, the timing was not exactly perfect.

Surviving the twin impacts of the Easter bombs and latterly Covid, though, the business has continued to grow. With a new product range launched earlier this year, and a showroom planned for opening later this month (August), we spoke to Thilan on the origins of the business, the team he’s built, and plans ahead.

“I’m from Sri Lanka originally but moved to Australia with my family at a young age. I grew up there and, though an engineer by training, was studying for my MBA when I saw a gap in the Sri Lankan furniture market.

 “The design of locally produced furniture hadn’t really changed much in the last 30 years. Especially for the villa-owning expat market, or Sri Lankans who’d lived overseas, there wasn’t a local producer of a simpler, more minimalist aesthetic that was proving very popular in other parts of the world.

“So we set out with that target market – villas and boutique hotels - and with a focus on those kind of pieces. 

“Our team has evolved but we’ve worked mostly from a studio and workshop in Moratuwa. We have a team of four designers currently and a combination of full-time employed craftsmen as well as others we bring in for big projects when needed.

“All our designers studied and qualified from the University of Moratuwa so have a strong, consistent understanding of the aesthetic and quality we’re aiming for.

“Working with craftsmen that had ideas about furniture design learned over 30 years in some cases was an initial challenge. It took us a long time, with a lot of trial and error, to get what was on paper into actual production.  

“We’re really happy with the team we have now, though, and the quality of the products we’re offering. The feedback is consistently good – a lot of the time people are happily surprised to find the quality of these items being produced locally in Sri Lanka. The response to the new pieces in our catalogue, brining metal and rattan alongside our traditional solid wood designs, has been very positive too.

“It’s a tough time for most people right now but we’re still excited about the future. We’ve built strong relationships with architects and designers locally and so see a good flow of new projects still working to completion.

“At least 60% of our work is with architects and designers working on behalf of their clients. We love that, as those guys understand and appreciate fully the level of quality we’re trying to bring. We do sell directly too and hope the new showroom, opening soon in Ratmalana, will help. For now, we have pieces available in outlets like Urban Island in Colombo.

“We’re very much a Sri Lankan business and would love to develop opportunities to sell elsewhere. We’re in early stages of shipping small quantities to distributors in North America which will be a major steppingstone.

 “Overall, it’s been a great journey already to reach the point we’re at and we’re excited to develop further. We’re incredibly fortunate with the team we have – people like Sashitha (Design Manager) who launched the business with me and runs operations – and there’s no reason why we can’t continue to grow, designing and supplying more beautiful furniture in months and years ahead.”