Furnished Forever is a commercial furniture studio founded in 2017 by Canberra-based designers René Linssen and Elliot Bastianon. We talk to the partnership to find out how Furnished Forever started and what makes it special...

Furnished Forever began when designers René Linssen and Elliot Bastianon realized their skills combined created the perfect opportunity for a collaboration. Through this discovery and a whole lot of work Furnished Forever was born in 2017. The brand, defined by its clean lines, crisp geometry and a restricted colour palette offers a refreshing take on minimal furniture design with a range of highly functional products to cater for the commercial and residential markets. Linssen and Bastianon place great value on Australian manufacturing industries, with all Furnished Forever products designed and fabricated domestically, with a particular emphasis placed on manufacturers in the ACT and Southern NSW region.

When/where was Furnished Forever established?

Furnished Forever was established early 2017 by Canberra-based designers René Linssen and Elliot Bastianon. The first time we properly met each other was at a mutual friend’s party a couple of months prior. The design conversation was flowing freely and it felt like there was potential for a good partnership.

 

What are your (Elliot and Rene) backgrounds and why did you decide to start FF?

Elliot’s degree at the Australian National University had a strong focus on hand skills and material exploration, while René studied Industrial Design at the University of Canberra – focusing on production and commercial viability. We both saw an opportunity here for a unique collaboration where each person could offer something the other couldn’t, complementing each other’s strengths. In our eyes, it wouldn’t make much sense to collaborate with someone who had the same skill set as you.

We each respected the other’s work yet had differing styles and ideas on what constitutes good design. The first piece, Low Stance, took a few attempts to get right, which made it feel right. If we both loved the first idea we came up with, that would’ve been a bit worrying!

 

How would you describe the style of Furnished Forever in three words? 

Refined, minimal, FurnitureThatWillLastForever 🙂

 

What is the brand all about?

The brand’s primary focus is on Australian designed and made furniture at an accessible price point that doesn’t sacrifice quality. This is something we both feel very strongly about. Low cost imports and replicas have cheapened the furniture market and done devastating things to domestic manufacture. We want our products to be priced competitively against these inferior options, but have all the hallmarks of Australian ingenuity and craftsmanship.

Our name ‘Furnished Forever’ is also a reflection of our values – creating furniture that will last forever…or at least very VERY long time.

 

Run us through a couple of your products, the inspiration behind them, how they can be used, the clever-design and what makes your design special.

The Low Stance and High Stance stools are the first two products FF have developed. The inspiration was to create a seat that would utilise the local manufacturing options available to us in Canberra and Southern NSW without the compromise of a big price tag.

All the manufacturing and assembly is done in the ACT, which has great economic and environmental benefits. Low Stance is stackable and both stools are robust enough to endure anything the weather can throw at them! This was an important consideration of ours – we wanted these products to look just as good outside as inside. Versatility is a great thing and it provides people with options.

It’s hard to bring originality to commercial steel furniture, as it’s been a pretty well explored territory by some very talented designers. With this in mind, our frames incorporate welded mitres instead the more common bent tube. While subtle, it adds a nice crisp detail to the work and reflects our two backgrounds – crafted detailing blended with commercial applications.

The stools are simple things and are comprised of two different parts, making assembly at our end a breeze. This simplicity opens up the option for our customers to specify custom colour schemes and variation between the seat and frame.

 

What projects are you looking forward to in the future? 

At the moment we’re working away on some new pieces that continue the aesthetic of the two stools. 2018 should be a pretty exciting year for us and we can’t wait to share what we’ve been cooking up!