Aaraish Steel Furniture

Our shop is on Circular Road, right across from Karbala and near the Aims International School. It’s a busy area and you can usually hear the sound of metal hitting metal from down the street. We deal with a lot of steel, so the floor is always covered in shavings and bits of scrap. We don't have a showroom with fancy lights. The furniture just sits where there is space after it’s been welded or painted. It smells like primer and burnt metal most of the time. We use old fans to try and keep the smoke out. The work is hard on the back and the hands. Sometimes the paint doesn't dry as fast as we want because of the humidity. We just wait it out. People walk in off the street to see what we are making. We don't have a salesperson. One of us just stops what we’re doing to talk. The benches and cupboards are heavy, so moving them around takes a lot of effort. We keep our tools on a big wooden rack that we built ourselves. It’s not a pretty place, but it’s where we get things done. The address is easy to find if you know where the school is. We just keep busy with the orders. Sometimes the sparks fly and it gets bright in the shop, but we have our gear. It's just honest work in a noisy part of town.