“My interest in furniture dates back to my childhood, playing with my dollhouse…I threw the dolls out to play with the furniture. As an adult, it started with hauling home curbside finds and fixing them,” Toronto Furniture Manufacturer Roxanne Brathwaite explains that he started Hollis Newton, a company that specializes in reimagining vintage and antique chairs into bespoke one-of-a-kind chair pieces.Brathwaite also runs Suite City Woman, a website and Etsy store that showcases her handcrafted miniature homewares designed and made on a 1:12 scale.
The COVID-19 pause has kept Brathwaite from handling her day job, which has pushed her into a miniature world.Before the lockdown, she was inspired by a textile artist who made miniatures and placed them in unconventional places like cupboards and bookshelves.In March, over time, she began making her first batch of junior suites.
She placed the first environment on a bookshelf and later created a separate 10″ x 10″ room.With an eye toward upcycling and reuse, Brathwaite’s suites incorporate everyday items such as lip balm caps, fabric scraps, toothpicks, tinfoil and coffee stirrers, which are transformed into planters, pillows and chairs.
As an installation for the DesignTO festival, Brathwaite dedicated the room to children who died of abuse.
“My goal with all the suites is to create creative curated spaces where people can stop and think,” she said, alluding to the three environments she created for the DesignTO festival.”Aiming” to raise awareness about social issues such as domestic abuse, mental health and racially motivated violence, one suite features photographs and paintings of the likes of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, while another suite includes Photos of Toronto child dying from disease abuse.Brathwaite said she is currently designing a biophilic kit and another for Alzheimer’s Awareness Month that will be a tribute to her mother who has dementia.
In addition to designing installations, Brathwaite’s Etsy store is full of miniature homewares that will make you want to shrink one to twelve sizes so you can jump right into her world of “suites.”Aside from her little pillows, artwork, rugs and mid-century furniture, her tiny library of books is truly a treasure trove of comfort.
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