An idea with legs: Mona Itani’s unique plate and chair designs

We meet the Dubai-based designer Mona Itani, who has gone from making vintage cake stands to creating her first collection of chairs.

Jaylyn Willow, one of the chair models by Mona Itani. Itani’s unique products are hand-engraved and hand-painted in Lebanon. Courtesy Mona Itani

Most women have a lot to do in the run-up to their weddings. But Mona Itani is taking things to a whole new level. For her upcoming nuptials, instead of giving standard favours, the ­Dubai-based designer has decided to give each of her 150 guests one of her handmade, personalised plate tiers.

“People usually give crystal; I’m giving used plates,” the 36-year-old jokes. “My mum was really worried that people wouldn’t understand, so I said: ‘We’ll make them understand.’ First of all, I am hand-picking each and every plate, then I am drilling them myself and putting them together to make tiers. How much more personal can you get?”

Itani’s love of vintage plates evolved into a business about a year ago. The designer, who admits to having something of a penchant for online shopping, started scouring the internet for vintage plates – the kind sold by tiny independent shops and collectors in hidden corners around the world.

Some of Itani’s acquisitions are 150 to 200 years old and many are one-offs; some are collector’s items, while others are more contemporary and artistic. Among her favourites is a line of plates from the 1950s that are collector’s items and designed to be hung on the wall. Their appeal lies in the fact that they depict scenes from the story of Aladdin, with each gold-trimmed piece telling a different tale.

Over the past year, Itani’s collection has grown so much she now has to store the overflow in her bathtub. It was a natural progression, then, to start mixing and matching her hand-picked plates to create unique two- and three-tiered stands, which she now sells under her Moni Itani brand.

These include high-end centrepieces, vintage stands, mismatched tiers with a ­shabby-chic aesthetic, and modern, pop-style pieces. She has also been known to throw an oversized teacup into the mix, and has started experimenting with off-centre tiers and trays featuring double stands. The finished product can be used for just about anything, she says, from presenting food to holding potpourri and bathroom towels – or they can simply act as a striking centrepiece for your table.

Itani remembers the first time she tried to drill a hole in one of her plates. “I loved the idea of tiers, so I went on YouTube and searched for a video on how to make them,” she says. “It was a video from the [United] States, so obviously they were very concerned with safety. The guy was wearing goggles and I didn’t have any, so I went and found the largest pair of sunglasses that I owned and put them on because I was worried the plate would shatter. He was also wearing safety gloves, and I didn’t have any of those, so I put on some rubber washing gloves. So I had these bright-pink gloves and my sunglasses on, and I started drilling my plates.”

This first attempt was a success, and, she says proudly, she hasn’t broken a plate yet. Her creations are now being sold for between Dh250 and Dh650 in Cottage Chic in Dubai’s Mirdif City Centre or can be ordered direct from Itani. “There has been a process of education. People always want to know what they can do with them. Then they realise that it’s about the age of the plates, and where they are from. The plates tell a story; it’s not just about putting something on your table.”

It seems fitting that Itani would find herself creating such items. She has lived in the UAE for eight years, grew up in Lebanon and the US, and studied graphic design before moving into marketing. She comes from a family of architects, and describes her mother as a “Martha Stewart-type interior designer and total perfectionist when it comes to her home”, the kind of woman who would change her decor according to the seasons and lay out a completely different table setting every time visitors came round.

Having achieved some success with her tiers, Itani set her sights on bigger things – chairs. The idea was hatched during a shopping trip with her sister. “She wanted that one piece of furniture that was totally different. And there wasn’t really anything in Dubai. If you go to people’s houses here, we basically all have the same things. There are a limited number of places where you can buy furniture, and at the end of the day, everybody’s houses look alike.”

Itani started doodling and came up with a series of chair designs. “I started asking around about how I could execute them. But the design was so intricate that nobody could really do it here.”

Next stop, Beirut. Itani discovered a team of people who could help transform her doodles into reality. “That was the first part of it. And then, because I love shopping online so much, I started looking at different textiles and fabrics. Every time I would find a fabric that I liked, I would just order it. The fabrics that you find here, and even in Beirut, are quite predictable – a lot of velvet and velour and a lot of reds and browns and yellows.”

It took a year and a half (plus a few sleepless nights and the odd crying session) to create the 12 chairs in the new collection. The results are absolutely stunning, characterised by their intricate, unexpected shapes, eye-catching colours and bold, mismatched fabrics and patterns.

Hand-painted and hand-­engraved, each chair has been granted a decidedly traditional female name. Isabelle Paisley has a backrest shaped like an oversized flower; Ashlyn Willow’s slimline back takes the curvaceous form of a blossoming tree; Jaylyn Willow combines a stout seat and a small circular backrest that extends out into a beautiful avian form; while the Francesca Paisley features fun fabric from Alexander Henry’s The Ghastlies collection.

They’re all made from wood, but look like they could have been constructed out of marble, bronze or any other noble material. There’s also the option to customise, which will take between two and three months, unless you opt for an existing fabric from Itani’s now extensive collection. While Itani has yet to settle on a stockist and the chairs have to be ordered directly from the designer, her chairs will doubtless go down a treat with Dubai’s design-savvy ­consumers.

“I wanted to create something that looked just as good from the front as it did from the side or the back. It’s that statement piece. You’ve decorated your home and you are just looking for that one last thing that is completely out of the ordinary. It’s an art piece that you get to sit on.”

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