To begin with, let me quote Joseph Butler who in an article in Encyclopedia Britannica wrote, "India's place in the history of furniture is that of an adapter or transformer of imported Western styles rather than a creator of independent styles of its own." Not before 16th century, Indians were aware of domestic furniture and familiar objects as tables and chairs were rarely used. The Dutch and the Portuguese settlers soon found it difficult to obtain furniture locally and hence started importing from the West. Indian craftsman, although an inaccurate copyist, was a skilled and imaginative adapter of foreign decorative detail and soon gave birth to the Indo-European style of furniture.
The domestic furniture industry mainly evolved post-independence. Utility and simplicity gained primacy over art and soon the market was flooded with cheaper, low quality furniture. However, the old forms of furniture continued to prevail in niche areas. It can therefore be stated that bulky well-crafted ornamental furniture has been the predominant furnishing witnessed in homes over the past three decades.
In recent times, living spaces shrunk and so the size of the furniture reduced and the extra ornamentation also vanished to suit this space. Hand-crafted furniture has been much in vogue in the country.
Coming to the focal point, I would like to draw the attention to the huge demand and insignificantly domestic supply, resulting in massive exports from the overseas market. Not only in metros, the demand for furniture is seen in satellite towns as well. Although office furniture is available, a majority of the corporate houses, BPOs, IT/ITeS firms, hotels and commercial centres import furniture. China and Southeast Asian countries are now being seen as prime import destinations for furniture.
Realising the scarcity, we at Karigars Interiors have launched a portal, with a large manufacturer base, which has been primarily exporting furniture for over a decade to European and the US markets. This would give buyers and interior designers an easy platform to source furniture.
Catalogued furniture
Today, all designers/architects are interested basically in catalogued furniture. Catalogued
 furniture is basically furniture to be ordered out of a catalogue. By doing so, they are sure they would get the requisite quality and timely delivery too. Besides, they would not have to spend time in chasing up with the smaller manufacturers whose delivery schedules always fail, quality norms are never adhered and finish is below the level of catalogued furniture.Hand-made furniture has its limitations on finish. The smaller manufacturer never seasons the wood and has very little knowledge about blending materials like wood, metal and plastic as he is not aware of the qualities of either of the materials. This definitely then leads to a much inferior finish and also sooner or later defects do arise in the furniture, which then require constant maintenance. On the contrary, quality is always the prime factor with catalogued furniture and deliveries are always on time too.
Going ahead, with large construction activity and awareness for interior design, the demand for catalogue furniture would definitely rise.
Rajiv Mehta, proprietor of The Karigar Interiors, a well-known interior designing firm in New Delhi |
Furniture is one of the vital components of interior designing, as its shape, look and location can bring an aura to a room or destroy it completely. Unfortunately, India’s expertise in furniture making has been poor and this can be supported by history. 
