Overview

Conception

This service was a true Honeymoon inspired business, Andrew and Fiona were honeymooning in exotic Marrakech where at breakfast one could relax at a warmed, tiled table top whose vibrant colour and character professed the skills and traditions of artisanal craftsmen over a thousand years. The place was intoxicating, but it was clear that the traditions needed supporting. Our concern was how one can ensure continuation of such dying skills that are supporting the economy of whole families and communities; without a “product” or a “need” at the end, these communities cannot thrive, and there is precious little welfare in Morocco so our proposal was to encourage this desire in the UK to adorn conservatories, gardens and homes with similarly intoxicating furniture to set off our countries gardens, with designs, not in a particularly Islamic tradition, but with a Contemporary Modern slant. We were inspired by the Jardin Majorelle Yves St. Laurent gardens and the work in the Palmeraie of the architect Charles Boccara. After some time, in the early 2000s, came a realisation to Andrew, an architect, that it all arose from his interest in materials and this broader interest was building across wider sectors, a split of working resulted later in setting up two companies.

Early Impetus  as The Greenhouse Effect Ltd.

In the early 2000’s the garden furniture market was filled with South Asian teak suppliers, before the move to control sustainable sourcing of timber there were huge forest fires in Indonesia and Malaysia across the news and global concerns were growing about the use of hardwoods at all. There was much illegal extraction and desecration of primordial forest with associated insecure flora and fauna resulting. From this arose the original company name choice as a reaction to this global disaster. Our numerous showstands (RHS Chelsea, RHS Hampton Court, RHS Tatton Park) stood out directly challenging and opposing these, as we termed “Teak Boys” (retailers of hardwood for garden furniture) and their promotion of uncontrolled extraction of timber before FSC (Forest Steward Council) controls came into play, our ethos was NOT to use hardwood timber at all.

Now

Today, 22 years later, we operate with a large stock choice of tiled tables, up to 200 platters is quite usual for us, in order to be able to have a wide design and colour choice for customers in each size/shape/material. We are the largest UK stockist as a result and a specialist in the dining sizes. We were glad to service the movie “Mamma Mia 2” with an assortment and we often supply to country houses like Houghton Hall, hotels and to restaurants aside from our normal clientele. We now have a “Mamma Mia” inspired showspace full of mature trees, designed to appear to be an external courtyard in Greece. With our Roman stone mosaic we have even supplied bathroom flooring mosaic for country houses and are now broadening our offering with Neapolitan glazed lava stone as a third material option. If you want to visit us and our showroom, please do make an appointment to be sure we expect you as we keep very fluid opening times.