KOLKATA
A beautifully made piece of furniture has its own anatomy. There is the curve of an armrest, the thickness of a tabletop, the angle at which a leg meets the frame and the way two materials come together. These decisions may appear small, but they determine how a piece looks, feels and performs over years of use.
At Oak Gallerie, founders Aaditya and Kritika Nahata have made these details central to their approach. The Kolkata-based company specialises in bespoke furniture, custom millwork and architectural joinery, creating pieces that respond to the proportions and character of individual interiors.
The studio’s design vocabulary is remarkably varied. Natural wood grains might become the starting point for an entire composition, while the symmetry of a classical architectural element could inspire a cabinet or console. Elsewhere, the irregularity of organic forms introduces softer outlines, balanced by the clean geometry of contemporary furniture.
There is something wonderfully improbable about a chartered accountant finding his calling in carpentry. Particularly when the discovery happens in a friend’s garage, far removed from the polished showrooms and elaborate residences that would eventually become part of his working world. For Aaditya, the unlikely beginning came in Ballygunge, Kolkata. Having trained as a CA in Australia, furniture design was hardly an obvious career choice. Yet helping construct a friend’s garage introduced him to the possibilities of making things.
Today, the Kolkata-based atelier operates from a 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility. The scale is impressive, although the more interesting part of Oak Gallerie’s story lies in what happens between an idea and the finished object. A piece might begin with the branching pattern of a tree, the geometry of an architectural detail or an unusual combination of materials. Wood is worked against brass, marble introduces weight and contrast, and carefully executed joinery determines how everything holds together. Some designs favour strong silhouettes; others reveal their intricacies through a carved edge, an unexpected grain or a finely resolved junction.
There is also an interesting contrast within the workshop itself. Contemporary production methods operate alongside traditional woodworking skills. Precision machinery may establish the dimensions, but the final character of a piece often depends on the judgement of the craftsman working on its surface. The studio also undertakes custom millwork and architectural joinery, working alongside architects and interior designers to develop furniture around particular rooms and requirements.
For Oak Gallerie, the real measure of furniture is not how striking it appears on delivery day, but how comfortably it settles into the years that follow. And somewhere within that growing enterprise remains the spirit of its unlikely beginning: a man who went to help build a garage and discovered an entirely different future.
