Funquetry Pleated Bar

Few designers carry two cultures as literally as Nada Debs, who spent her childhood in Kobe, Japan, before studying at RISD and eventually settling in Beirut, the city her family had fled. Her furniture reads like a translation exercise between Japanese minimalism and the Arab craft heritage of marquetry, wood carving and mother-of-pearl inlay practiced for generations in the workshops of the Levant. She calls the result Contemporary Arabesque, a language of clean geometry and intricate handwork that lets centuries-old technique speak in an entirely contemporary accent.

Built in American walnut with shelving in Calacatta marble and mirrored panels, the Funquetry Pleated Bar belongs to Nada Debs’ Funquetry collection, in which strips of dyed wood are inlaid by hand in Lebanon to form a pleated, almost origami-like surface. The marble shelves catch the light of any bottle set on them, turning a bar cabinet into a small display of craft.