One of Vancouver’s long-established architecture firms is sprouting a new revenue stream: selling custom-made high-end furniture.
While the 40-year-old Patkau Architects has for many years designed and manufactured one-off pieces of furniture that fit well in residential homes that the company designed, its foray into furniture is about to become a solid sales channel, principal John Patkau told BIV.
“We have prototypes and actual production,” he said.
“We have agreements now with retailers all across the country, from Vancouver through to Toronto, who are going to be taking the first lines of this production.”
Architecture remains Patkau’s bread and butter, but he plans to increase sales in the furniture-production side of the business and then spin off the company under the name Patkau Studios.
Having businesses with clearly defined niches can be helpful when selling the ventures, but Patkau, at 77 years old, said he has no plans to retire or sell businesses.
His 25-employee company operates a 5,000-square-foot office at 1564 West 6th Avenue with part of that space now used to make furniture.
One of his employees is focused full-time on the furniture side of the business and he is looking to hire assistants.
Patkau’s core furniture product so far is a glowing light installation that somewhat resembles thick seaweed growing up from the floor.
Small installations cost about $950 while larger ones can cost $2,750.
Tables cost much more, and underscore just how high-end the furniture pieces are.
Patkau’s Maitake tables start at $10,000 and include three wooden leaves but those tables can easily cost double that, or even up to $50,000 for much larger creations if the customer has a huge space to fill.
His goal is to reach more than $1 million in 2025 revenue, but he expects to at least generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue.
“It may be contingent upon access to the U.S. market, which we're also interested in doing, because our architecture brand is actually well known in many circles in the U.S.,” he said.
President-elect Donald Trump’s threatened 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian imports could dampen U.S. consumer enthusiasm for Patkau’s products.
Trump said he would impose the tariffs on importers if Canada does not stop the illegal flow of drugs and migrants. The importers would then likely pass on those costs in the form of higher retail prices.
“I'm concerned about Trump in many ways, not just the tariffs,” Patkau said.
One silver lining for local manufacturers is that the Canadian dollar could continue its recent plunge to multi-year lows if the Trump tariffs materialize.
The loonie today weakened 0.2 per cent to a 4.5-year low against its U.S. greenback: $1.4190 per U.S. dollar, or US$0.7047 per Canadian dollar. The last time the loonie was weaker was April 2020.
Standardized prices in U.S. dollars would therefore convert into more Canadian dollars the lower the loonie falls.
