IDS Offsite: SwitzerCultCreative Greenscapes the Showroom for ARTISAN and Mary Ratcliffe Collabs

By Laura Goldstein

Bringing nature indoors takes on a new creative connectedness at SwitzerCultCreative with two wood-inspired furniture brands and the botanical artistry of Burnaby’s Greenscape Design & Decor. 

“It’s amazing how greenery really warms things up,” effuses Adam Bellas, manager and partner of the luxury showroom specializing in sustainable Pacific Northwest, made-in-Canada and curated international furnishings. “Beautiful furniture truly becomes a relaxing sanctuary with the addition of plants.”

It’s a match made in botanical heaven: Both SwitzerCultCreative and Greenscape Design & Decor have been sponsors and participants at IDS Vancouver for years. “We jumped at the chance to elevate what we do by partnering together during the IDS Offsite fall design programme,” explains Corinne  Kessel, Principal of the all-women custom “fauxtanical” design company. 

Handcrafted in their Burnaby studio, intricate framed wall art composed of spongy chartreuse preserved Reindeer Mosses and deep forest green cascading ferns, tropical potted floor plants and trees are a lush foil for real-life flora and look so alive you have to resist the temptation to water them! “All our mosses and leaves started out as real – then we preserve them with glycerin and a non-toxic treatment that won’t dry them out and they stay naturally soft,” Kessel explains.

Their 3D greenery particularly melds with the new solid wood furniture collection from ARTISAN. “We have known wood our entire lives from the forests we played in as children,” says the Bosnian company’s co-founder Fadil Ćostović. 

For example, the Latus Sideboard in walnut is so sleek the bespoke wood drawer cabinetry appears to float inside the external frame. 

The Mela Lounge Two-Seater Sofa boasts ARTISAN’S recurring design motif: a side wraparound in walnut (also used in many of their chair designs,) that embraces the plush velvet sofa. Both the fabric and wood are available in a number of different choices as is the Wu Lounge Chair with solid, fabric or leather seating or naturally striated walnut Tanka Chair.

Also new to ARTISAN is the Shift Lamp in three permutations of floor lamp and desk lamp constructed on wooden stilts with vinyl shades in black and white. 

Toronto’s Mary Ratcliffe Studio collection of impeccably crafted wood furniture like the Lyndoe Low Seat with black buffalo leather slung  seat (also available as Bar Stool & Bench,) and two-toned Myers Console, reflect her emphasis on sustainability and hope that clients pass down her pieces to the next generation. (see Mary Ratcliffe Shakes Up the Male Dominated Realm of Furniture Making)

IDS Offsite collabs with Greenscape Design & Decor, ARTISAN and  Mary Ratcliffe Studio Collections are available at SwitzerCultCreative, Unit 102-1636 West 2nd Avenue,Vancouver throughout October.