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From Woodstock to Sanath
Shiromi Misso turns out elegant furniture for a celebrity clientele. Kumudini Hettiarachchi reports
As you walk into the home of Sri Lanka's cricket captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, pride of place has been given to a large cupboard made of mahogany crammed full with trophies of different shapes and sizes, glistening gold or silver. Some even lie outside, standing proudly on the cupboard.

His wife Sandra is discussing the need for another trophy cupboard with Shiromi Misso, while Sanath's 13-month-old, pretty little toddler Keshini walks around the spacious hall. Sanath is not at home, for he has just that afternoon flown off for the Sharjah Cup tournament.

Not only are Shiromi and Sandra friends, but Shiromi has also undertaken some important assignments for Sanath's family - to design and make exclusive pieces of furniture for their home in Boralesgamuwa. They are now discussing details of a pantry to be fitted there soon. Among her touch in Sanath's and Sandra's home are the trophy cupboard, the large dining table with eight chairs, the beautiful sideboard with a large mirror standing flush with the wall and the floor-to-roof wardrobe in their bedroom from which Sanath has just packed his clothes. “ When we have parties, the cricketers gather around the dining table. Sanath also spends much time there,” says Sandra.

Shiromi Misso, Managing Director of Woodstock, has not only designed and produced elaborate furniture for many a celebrity but she has also done work for ordinary folk.

"There is much utility value in whatever furniture we make. I discuss with the customer what they need personally and also how much money they can spare and take it on from there. We make anything and everything, from storable ironing boards to bunk beds which can be turned into tables if the room is very small, a mirror table cum cupboard, wall-to-wall wardrobes, compact pieces for a home-office and also more intricate furniture," says Shiromi.

Sanath apart, the furniture she has designed for other celebrities includes a fully-fitted pantry for Marvan Atapattu, three bedrooms for Rosy Senanayake, all the furniture for the former Don Stanley's restaurant at Nawam Mawatha and the whole apartment of Swarna Mallawarachchi at Rosmead Place (done in pine wood). She has also designed the British Airways cargo office, Janashakthi insurance office, Eastern Maritime Shipping, five floors of the Lanka Bell office when it was at Bauddhaloka Mawatha and the showrooms of Lanka Ceramics in Kandy and Kurunegala.

Designing has always been a passion for 36-year-old Shiromi. "I liked designing even when I was in school and was competent in architectural drawings." Though she was selected to university and Law College in 1983, it was a turbulent time for Sri Lanka and most institutions were closed for lengthy periods of time due to the communal problems. Idling at home, she took to flying as a stewardess for Air Lanka, while nurturing her interests in designing by visiting many an exhibition abroad and also furniture shops in cities such as Paris. She also acquired loads of books. Three years later it was marriage to Jeremy, also a steward, soon followed by two babies, a daughter and son, when everything else was put on hold. "When my children could manage on their own, I revived my interest in designing. I felt I needed to do my own thing. After five to six years, I was raring to go," she says.

She tried her hand out firstly in her own home on half-acre of land in Boralesgamuwa. The sitting room suite, wardrobes, beds, the pantry, the whole lot. The coffee table in the hall has a design on the side, and Shiromi, laughing opens it out to show us that they contain two drawers where coasters and books can be stored. Gradually, she expanded her interest, more as a hobby, getting requests from friends to help out. She designed the pieces and a baas (carpenter) in Maharagama did the furniture for her. When she realized that he was not using the material specified by her she decided to set up her own place. "When I found some of them to be inferior I felt cheated and let down," she explains. In 1992, she hired two baases and set up a small workshop in her own premises. Then she could juggle her role as housewife, mother and designer. "The beginnings were hard. From the drawing board to the time the last screw is fixed at installation I am there to supervise and ensure that the product is perfect. At that time many people did not want to give me work. They could not connect a woman and carpentry. But I had a few architect friends who helped me at the beginning," she says.

Now the workshop with 44 employees is a hive of activity. A youth is manning the lathe machine, some are planing wood while others are seeing to the joinery amidst the wood shavings scattered on the floor. Tactfully she also settles the tiny labour hiccups that come up from time to time. "Once one of my workers, a youth had called a customer aunty, and she was offended. I had to apologize to her while advising the youth on how to deal with customers," she laughs.

Shiromi manufactures solid wood household furniture with timber such as mahogany and teak and also stuff with MDF (medium density fibre) boards for a cheaper budget. "We also do a little combination of wrought iron and wood because they blend well together," she says.

For several years she has been designing, fabricating, dismantling and shipping trade stalls for both Lanka Wall Tiles and Lanka Tiles for an annual international exhibition held in Orlando, America.

"Woodstock has won the merit award for trade stalls for five successive years at the Institute of Architects exhibition held here, bagging the Excellence Award this year," says Shiromi with understandable pride.

She gets the greatest satisfaction from seeing a raw log turning out to be an elegant and exquisite piece of furniture. Shiromi is adamant in saying no to export orders and large showrooms because she says her pieces are "one of a kind and not mass produced".

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