Funquetry Pleated Bench

Beirut is where Nada Debs’ story comes full circle: raised in Kobe, Japan, educated at RISD in Rhode Island, she moved to Lebanon as an adult to reconnect with a heritage she had grown up without. In her studio there, master craftsmen versed in marquetry, wood carving and mother-of-pearl inlay work alongside her toward what she terms Contemporary Arabesque, a style that borrows the quiet discipline of Japanese design and the ornamental richness of Arab craft in equal measure, so that a single tabletop can hold both a tea-ceremony calm and the flash of inlaid pearl.

Upholstered in blue velvet against American walnut, the Funquetry Pleated Bench carries the pleated marquetry pattern of Nada Debs’ Funquetry collection across its surface, with colourways in blue, green, red or white and bespoke tones available on request. The strips of inlaid wood, hand-assembled in Lebanon into what artisans call a mother pattern, give the bench a folded, textile-like rhythm despite being entirely solid wood.