Sustainability is a concept that Canberra couple Anita and Carlo Krikowa live and breathe, and their furniture and homewares company boyandgirlco is no exception.
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The business is all about repurposing and giving pallets, which would otherwise be disposed of, a new life in the form of bespoke furniture pieces. The idea stemmed from an 'a-hah' moment from when the duo first got together.
"For a long time we were consuming so much, we had relatively well-paying jobs and all this expendable income so we just kept buying 'stuff' and spending money on random things," Carlos explains.
"We just kept buying and not taking any time to appreciate the mechanisms or its use, and that's what contributed to the sustainable philosophy of boy&girlco. We breathe sustainability throughout our lives, not just within our jobs.
"For us it's about taking the lifestyle that we have developed and working with others who feel the same and sharing that."
Anita adds that recycled timber is really expensive, but because it's a health hazard it's being wasted and thrown away.
"Canberra is this black hole of transport, where we don't actually manufacture anything but a lot of 'stuff' comes in," she says.
"We import everything but not a lot goes out so it's a real issue for businesses that they can't get rid of them and the beautiful wood is just wasted."
With this in mind the creative pair started off making pallet furniture for their own home.
"Everything we do is all self-taught, nothing we 'studied' professionally," Anita says.
"When we began creating furniture we discovered a design element in us that we didn't know existed, and from there it just ignited. It's getting stronger and stronger all the time.
"We very quickly found that other people liked what we made and we could share this passion with people both through teaching how to make it and also making them for customers."
Carlos says that what he loves most about the job is being able to build something that has never been built before.
"No design is the same and these pieces are going to live in people's homes for years and it's great being able to share a part of people's lives for an extended period of time," he says.
"A lot of the time when people look at pallets they think of something that people throw away. But if you just take the time and effort to see what potential lies within something as simple as a pallet you can create some magical things.
Today boyandgirlco pieces can be spotted adding character throughout homes and commercial spaces across Canberra and beyond.
"The response that we've had from Canberra has been great and surprising at the same time because we are such a conservative city," Anita says.
