We love meeting passionate and talented people who inspire us with their energy and work. We learned about Cristina Ene and her sofas from the interior design project by architect Alexandru Bucur, which we wrote about here. And because we suspected that there was a story behind her worth sharing with you, we asked her to tell us more about her passion.
The Story Begins My story began in childhood, among the workers in the carpentry section, in the assembly area, but most often in the tailoring department. However, what I remember best is the design board where you always found some lines intersecting in a fascinating way, especially for a child my age.
This gigantic marvel was located in my father's office, a sacred place where I didn't get to very often, which is probably why it remained so vividly imprinted in my memory. We are talking about a furniture factory from the communist period that decisively influenced my future.
The child fascinated by upholstered furniture production considered the profession of economist to be within reach and decided to go in that direction. After graduating from university, I tried the insurance field, management, but nothing was right and nowhere did I really find my purpose. It was always furniture that fascinated me and interior design the place where I felt at home.
After a few years of deepening my knowledge, perfecting my skills, and learning the trade from collaborating designers, I decided it was time to return to where it all began, at the E CO factory. There, I was given the chance to manage the factory store, develop it, and help develop the company's portfolio and image. From there, it was only a step away from developing my own line of unique products.
It all started with the Oxford sofa, where, through a playful combination of fabrics, colors, and textures, a unique product emerged, appreciated by the store's customers and beyond. In fact, for the first customer of this model, it was love at first sight. She saw the sofa and knew it was what she wanted for her living room.
From there, I started developing other products, designed either starting from the wallpaper or decorative panels in the respective interior, or from the owner's favorite season, or even from a special lighting fixture.
Later, I dared to extend the patchwork style to smaller pieces such as poufs and benches, but also to complementary products (the Antwerpen armchair), up to much larger products, up to three meters long, much more elaborately crafted (the Vega or Rio sofa).
Gaining confidence and encouraged by more and more customers who love such products, I decided to push the concept of uniqueness to another level. That's how I met Ruxandra from Fetes des Tissus. With her help, I was able to create the Mara sofa model, painted with great mastery. The idea was to make a product created in Romania with traditional motifs, inspired by Romanian culture.
