The story of the silk-like furniture at Gallery 98

Gallery 98, a furniture manufacturing company in Piatra Neamt, makes bathroom furniture, small furniture and custom-made furniture at a high quality level in the category luxury furniture. The quality of the furniture can be seen in the materials used and the very elaborate finish, as well as in the way the parts that are not visible are made. Everything is well polished and dyed so that, to the touch, the furniture feels like silk. The company is owned by the Dascălu family whom I met many years ago. Mrs. Dascălu - a fickle, sympathetic and cheerful person who is impossible not to like, is the author of the exquisite finishes that make the furniture of Galeria 98 so appreciated.

The beginning, 20 years ago

The conversation with Mrs. Dascălu always connects naturally. Although she is very busy being in the factory among the workers most of the time, sanding a piece of furniture, applying patina or mixing different colors trying to find the perfect one, she finally managed to chat about the beginnings of the business. Seeing the finishes that come out of his hand, you'd think he'd been around high-end furniture all his life. But the beginning was different:

We've been furniture makers for, shall we say, 20 years. We started in a former CAP barn. Yes, exactly. Sounds awful, but it was. We worked 16-hour days turning it into a furniture shop. I wouldn't start over now. It was a different time. To start a business, any business, you need money, a lot of hard work and a big dose of unconsciousness. I started from scratch. It was hard, I risked a lot.

I didn't have any experience in this field. My husband worked at the former wood processing plant in Piatra Neamț. I had to learn by doing. It was our family business, our investment and I had to get involved. I can say that I stepped on 12 cm high heels straight into the stable-workshop, in the dust, in the smell of varnishes and thinners, but I learned to varnish and I made furniture.

The beginning was rocky. The finishing section was outside, under a tarpaulin - a sheet tied to 2 poles to keep the wind from blowing and bringing rubbish over the precious furniture. That's how I learned about varnishes, thinners, primer... I knew nothing, ruined products, ruined paint, but I learned. 80% of the production I made was production furniture in the "arte povera" style and that helped me a lot to gain experience.

We had our own business and I had the luxury of experimenting with finishes, trying things out, mixing colors, patinas, innovating.

The 2009 crisis led to a fresh start and luxury furniture

In the beginning they only worked on furniture poor art poplar or lime and exported to Italy. Unfortunately the crisis came and the Italian market collapsed. Orders were getting smaller and smaller and payment deadlines were getting longer and longer. They decided to reorient and try other markets to continue their business. One option was the Romanian market. So they started making luxury furniture, with patinas and special finishes, furniture on demand for the most extravagant tastes.

We did our first major projects on the internal market in 2009. The economic crisis forced us to reinvent ourselves. We had to pay more attention to the domestic market. Working directly with designers meant a new level of quality, we had to get as close to perfection as possible. We started working with Ferarri red or titanium white colors, using patinas, color palettes, finishing schemes.

The customer's feedback at the end is confirmation of a job well done

The Gallery makes custom-made furniture and it's really successful. You'd think that this new market in custom-made furniture would lead to more problems and a much harder to control business. But if you listen to Mrs. Dascălu, you realize that's not so. On the contrary!

More often than not a finish starts with a story. A customer comes in with a request and ... a scarf, for example, and wants the colors of the scarf in the bedroom. And we start talking, telling stories, and that's how a finish is born. I can't say that I always know what will come out in the end, but I have an image, a color palette and a lot, a lot of imagination. Every order starts from some pictures and a hand sketch with dimensions and compartmentalizations. The customer's reaction at the end, when they see the product, is confirmation of a job well done. Sometimes we are deeply surprised. A customer's gesture of hugging a piece of furniture with his cheek against the worktop and saying "it feels like silk" says it all.