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Published on March 3, 2008

There were nearly 5,000 exhibitors at Ambiente in Frankfurt, Germany, but every visitor to the world's largest trade fair on design and lifestyle products noticed L-Living's photo frames and furniture made of reclaimed wood.

L-Living's founder and designer, Chalong Ngamkird, says he's always appreciated the beauty of old wood. "It's charming and tells its own story," he points out, explaining that he salvages pieces in bulk from old houses, schools and barns.

It's the sort of scrap most people would use to make chicken cages, but one day Chalong, who has a background in graphic and product design, asked his carpenter to use the wood in a picture frame.

The carpenter laughed but went ahead with his assignment. When they looked at the finished product, Chalong knew he'd found something.

"It wasn't an antique. It was old wood with a touch of modernity, a nice contrast. It was just so unique, with its own spirit and temperament. When I saw it I felt good. It refreshes the atmosphere.

"Plus, you don't have to cut down a single tree!"

Chalong opened a small shop at Chatuchak Market in 1996 to sell his "modern rustic" frames. At first people saw only the rustic - nail holes, uneven colouring - and didn't get the modern.

"They probably thought we were crazy," he chuckles.

But the pace of sales picked up and in six months he had a decent business going. "Most people smiled when they saw our products. They were, like, 'How did you come up with that!?', which gave me a lot of confidence."

The uniqueness of the frames and furnishings - no two are alike - and the sheer creativity of the idea earned them magazine features, and developers started including them in new housing projects. Chalong believes his invention has even boosted Thai interest in home decorating.

"We've had many customers who've told us they saw the idea somewhere and thought it was an alternative way of decorating homes.

"Our products aren't fashion," he stresses. "They're timeless. You can use them whenever you want, and they're very simple - people can easily understand the philosophy behind them."

Three years on, Chalong quit his job to run L-Living, and business really boomed when orders started coming in from the United States. Soon his girlfriend, Sasithorn Riensavapak, left her job to join the team too - she's now managing director.

Sasithorn helped push the brand to another level. The firm began exhibiting at trade fairs like the BIG & BIH house and garden shows in Bangkok, where they picked up orders from all over the world.

She also extended the production line into furniture, which proved an overwhelming success, and the team added fresh production techniques like printing on the wood.

Popularity breeds copycats, and although the knockoffs can't match L-Living's style, Sasithorn does get annoyed at times. "Design is the result of continuous experimentation," she says. "We didn't get things right the first time we tried, and those are the costs that the copycats don't have to bear."

The mimics, at least, did prompt them to keep working on new products and designs, she admits, "to find something that's our unique style that customers would recognise".

Sasithorn decided that this year the brand has to get more global exposure. That's what brought L-Living, for the first time, to Frankfurt. The response was satisfying, Sasithorn says.

"Being here has confirmed that there are people who really appreciate it and are willing to buy."

Sopaporn Kurz

Special to The Nation

Frankfurt, Germany