More than just a love for Pottys

Furniture designer Tim Ord. Photo / Babiche Martens

Furniture designer Tim Ord shares some of the things that inspire and make him happy.

Furniture designer Tim Ord has always had a fascination with making things. It started with trolleys and tree huts in the North Shore suburb of Torbay. This was followed by a four-year industrial design course at Wellington Polytechnic. After employment in a business that made supermarket trolleys, Ord established Urban Furniture in Kingsland and specialised in creating stylish and modern shelving systems and office accessories. Filing racks for ring binders turned into a wholesale business supplying the countries largest retailers. From here, he and his wife Michelle Bostock took off with their kids for adventures in Morocco and Portugal, before returning to New Zealand and establishing a new business dedicated to creating decorative security doors, a combination of modern forms and function for NZ homes. Tim's lastest project is "Pottys", wire pot holders that put gardens on fences, walls or decks. It seems there's no stopping this trolley and tree hut maker.

10 FAVOURITE THINGS

1. African figures

Bought from a street trader, not so much for their beauty but for the fact that the Senegalese seller had dragged them against the odds to sell on the streets of Portugal. His skin was as black as night and he had the whitest teeth and the biggest smile I've ever seen.

2. My 3-loop potholder

This combines my love of foliage and obsession for wire-working - currently being introduced into retail chain stores.

3. Pod lamp table

This was originally designed by Sam Haughton who said I could make them, and when I sold a hundred to let him know. Didn't quite get there, Sam!

4. My children

Roman and Martini, the best things I've ever designed and produced. Their Saturday sports fall under one of the most satisfying moments of my week. Without them there would be no purpose.

5. Moroccan lamp

Purchased in the souq for $20 - it's given me a good shock from time to time due to its dodgy wiring.

6. 1970s Danish Jamo loud speakers

Sentimental for the number of metal workshop parties they have rocked, now under constant re-construction. I plan to be buried in them, or turn them into apartments.

7. Hanging plant

This is something which I have been coveting in a garden centre for weeks; which I decided to eventually purchase and now is enjoying pride of place under fluorescent lighting in my workshop.

8. Korean drill press

This I respect but it almost ripped my arm off while I was using it. I was wearing cotton gloves that got caught in the drill bit and wound my hand around and around until I could press the stop button. Was a freaky moment and almost a trip to Auckland Hospital.

9. Pepe Lopez

Our ginger tomcat who is mostly irritating, jumping through windows at night, landing with loud thumps, crowding the bed, snoring and reminding me of the value of family.

10. Waiheke Island

The best 10 years of my life - the beauty of island living, incredible memories, countless treasured occasions and many good friends. I could go for a row at dusk to get dinner, now it's a drive at dusk to the supermarket, sigh ... moving on.