2024-03-14 03:37:31
“I’ve been working on this acacia cabinet for almost 80 hours,” says Tereza Jakubíčková in her workshop near Lužánky Park in Brno. “It’s a memento that a lady has from her uncle from the 1970s. I’m practicing my patience on it. For example, this roller blind, made up of dozens of small cubes, was covered in nitro lacquer. So that the texture of the wood stands out beautifully again, the cubes one by one I sand by hand,” Tereza explains with a laugh, while standing next to a massive cabinet.
“And there are a lot of other problems with it that I have to solve. For example, this handle to the blind was stuck with glue. In order to separate the blind from the handle and be able to take it out of the cabinet, I had to reactivate the glue with water…” adds 34-year-old Tereza, who normally averages he repairs five or six jobs a month.
She started her furniture renovation project Fungl two years ago and hasn’t stopped since. “I often get pieces that are so-called someone messed up. But I have love and understanding for it, because this is what all our grandfathers did with furniture,” he adds.
I enjoy researching the history of furniture
She originally studied art history, but after two years of study she started thinking about how she could apply herself as an art historian. “I didn’t want to go to the archive or even teach. My friend was going to a higher restoration school at the time, and because he praised it, I thought that maybe it was the right thing for me,” recalls Tereza, who in the renovation finally combined everything that she likes. “I enjoy researching the history of furniture while working with my hands,” he says.
She was close to manual work since she was a child. As she says, she always made some “artwork” such as enamel earrings, jewelry, went to pottery or even had a loom at home for children. “Furthermore, I grew up in an environment where people were always creating. Grandpa was versatile, he carved nativity scenes or made sculptures out of wood. My mother, in turn, made mod toys for us,” she says.
In ten years, she repaired hundreds of pieces of furniture
After school, she was employed for several years, but longed to start her own business. “I’m extremely lucky to have people around me who have supported me. Financially and psychologically. My sister designed all the visuals for me, from the logo to the websites, which my brother created,” describes Tereza, who gives back to her loved ones their investment in her business by repairing their furniture in the free time.
“Starting your own business was of course scary. The investment in the business was not small. I needed to rent premises and buy furniture, tools and equip the workshop,” says Tereza. In addition to custom repairs, he also renovates pieces for free sale, which he presents on his website.
For that reason, he buys designer pieces such as armchairs from designers Jindřich Halabala, Miroslav Navrátil or tables and chairs from Robert Slezák. “I will buy an armchair in terrible condition for, for example, 15,000. There are mouse nests in it, feathers are crawling out of it, and the armrests are broken,” he describes.
Thus, Tereza determines the price for her services according to the deposit for the purchase of furniture and hourly work. “Even though I’m busier than when I was employed, I enjoy being able to be flexible. Although I sometimes work on weekends, I can take a week off and come to work at ten o’clock. I leave and come back as needed, for example I’m going to go through it before the surface coating dries, and then I’ll come back,” describes Tereza, who has repaired hundreds of pieces of furniture in her ten years in the industry.
It is better to help each other than to be a competitor
Tereza says that she likes peace and her own space, and you can feel this atmosphere in her workshop. Singer Norah Jones replaces the band Future Islands in the background, and during the interview we drink the coffee she made. “I feel enormous freedom, I don’t feel alone here at all. Clients come to me and I organize courses on weekends,” says Tereza, whose courses are already sold out two months in advance.
“I’m also very lucky in that when I don’t know what to do, I have people around me who do similar work and we advise each other. We don’t see ourselves as competition. We advise each other with colleagues from school or with owners of similar projects,” says Tereza , who likes to listen to podcasts and audiobooks at work. “The last thing I listened to was Chinese sci-fi The Three-Body Problem,” she adds.
With the newly established project Krásná cimra, which brings together six similarly founded entities from Brno, they will, for example, organize a furniture and home accessories market in October. It will be connected with interesting lectures on architecture and design. “I don’t understand why we should see each other as competition. I find it much better to help each other and connect,” Tereza shows her positive attitude to work and life, which is also reflected in her attitude towards her own household.
“We have a lot of things at home that my boyfriend and I repaired. But I definitely don’t live in a showroom. The main thing is that we live well. I want to surround myself with things that are comfortable and I try not to cling to them. They are still things and you have to to live my life. In addition, we have two parrots that gnaw our furniture,” says Tereza amused. When asked if she has a job dream, she answers with a laugh: “Now I would really like to go to the sea. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the sea,” she concludes.
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