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“If the term country furniture conjures up rustic pine, think again. Dividing her time between London and Co.Carlow, Sasha Bunbury fills urban pads with fresh hay and tractor tyres – and the orders are rolling in.”

Just when it seemed we might be taking interior design a little too seriously, tongue-in-cheek, Sasha Bunbury has appeared on the scene, to remind us it should be fun. It all started with a present for her father’s 60th birthday, when Sasha made a table by filling a Perspex cube with straw from the family farm. Taken aback at first, he then decided he loved it as did lots of others, so she made more…and more.

Quickly realising there was a gap in the market for “modern rural design that isn’t pine tables and floral curtains”, she set about to design pieces to address the urban/rural divide, throwing in a dollop of humour. Her design company, run between a stable yard in Co. Carlow and a west London studio, is called farm21. Soon after straw21, the name for her Irish straw-filled Perspex table-cum-stool, she started making lavender21, filled with French lavender chosen specially for its deep colour.

Having worked with furniture companies including Sacha Whelan in Cork and architects in Dublin, London and Iceland (she studied architecture in Edinburgh), she is producing a series of lyric benches, made from fallen wych elm from the farm in Co. Carlow. Engraved along the seat of each are lyrics by singers ranging from Elvis Costello to Bob Dylan – the one in the picture on the previous page “the sun ain’t yellow it’s chicken’ inspired by Dylan’s Tombstone Blues.

Coming next, in time for 100% Design, is a selection of canvas and silk roller blinds printed with digital photographs she has taken of the countryside in Carlow and south Wicklow. “I love the idea of tractor tyre marks on silk” she explains. Soon urban dwellers will be able to pull the blind on the concrete jungle and see instead an icicle-laden fence in early morning Wicklow sunlight. “farm21 started as a bit of a joke, to make people smile, but there is a slightly more serious aspect. I’m interested in the gap between fast-paced modern urban life and the slower rural pace. Capturing something of both worlds, farm21 gives a reminder of the other side.”

Article from the ‘CREATIVE FORCES’ column Ruth Thorpe, picture by Chris Tubbs; pages 23/24 (Autumn 2002)

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