A one-of-a-kind merger between industrial and modern art resulting in quirky décor concoctions.
The Quirk Works was born from a serious love of cars and a passion for creating furniture and home décor. The idea was to up-cycle the unlikeliest of materials into works of affordable art pieces that look great and are functional at the same time.
Co-founded by Darrace Cabral and Bageshree Shroff – professionals with over 30 years of cumulative experience between them albeit from different fields – they converted that knowledge towards a pursuit to follow their passion.
Darrace Cabral is a banker by profession and a car enthusiast by passion. He worked in banking for 15 years before quitting his job to co-found The Quirk Works and Bageshree Shroff is an interior designer with 15 years of experience. With a joint wealth of varied knowledge under their belt, this brainchild has been borne out of an inherent understanding of interior design, product design and trends.
Friends for many years, Darrace and Bageshree decided to start The Quirk Works when they were looking for automotive furniture for Darrace’ s farmhouse and couldn’t find anything that stood out. A bit of research into the current Indian market, the need for conversation starter pieces and the sheer lack of design studios that merge industrial and modern art to create quirky pieces, led to The Quirk Works’ inception.
Their first collection pays homage to perhaps the most iconic Indian car – the Ambassador. “For our first collection, we actually purchased a decommissioned pearl white Ambassador. The body was in fantastic condition. We took the car apart – literally in the front yard. Almost every piece of that car has been used to make this first collection.” said Ms. Shroff.
The products are categorised into Furniture, Lighting and Accessories. The furniture ranges from tables, racks and consoles, and couches and bar stools. Lighting range consists of table lamps, bedside lamps, desk lamps and hanging lights. Accessories are varied ranging from bottle openers and mirrors to desktop organisers and even wine bottle holders. Some of their more popular pieces are the engine table, the wheel rim table, the tyre table and the dashboard book rack.
Since all the pieces are made from parts of one car, there aren’t any duplicates. Additionally, everything is designed and manufactured in-house. They have used different techniques & processes to repurpose the car parts. To achieve this level of quality, a great deal of attention was paid to detailing. There was a significant amount of woodwork, welding, carpentry, painting and electrical work that was carried out.
“It was quite challenging to get craftsmen & skilled labour to understand what the finished pieces should look like – they had never really worked on something like this, before.” said Mr.Cabral. When asked about the inspiration behind their start-up, they said, “We understand that a passion can be indulged in a million ways and become a part of your space, but in this collection it was the sheer indulgence of the love for cars”.
The idea behind the brand is to reinterpret design by repurposing existing products into something completely new and to infuse spaces with bold & whimsical designs that are instant conversation starters which turn the spaces into an artistic tour de force.
In the next 5 years they aspire to have scores of successful themed collections –
all driven by the need to put one’s passion in your living space while simultaneously reducing the wastefulness of present times. We would love to create a niche for ourselves in custom designing hospitality spaces or fun work environments.
“What sets us apart is the high end finish of our products, the sophistication these products bring to any space and the uniqueness of our designs. We are constantly trying to create something that hasn’t been done before.” They both said in unison.
Text By Neerja Kapadia
The Quirk Works
6 Lohar Chawl,
Lalsingh Building
1st floor. Mumbai 400002
+91 8452095199
022 22082011/12
thequirkworks.info@gmail.com
Facebook Page: @TQW2018
Instagram: thequirkworks.mumbai