Meet Anne-Sophie Rosseel | Interior & Furniture Designer, Founder of House of RoRo

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anne-Sophie Rosseel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anne-Sophie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As an interior designer I often design custom furniture for client’s homes. So, when I couldn’t find what I wanted when looking for furniture for my son, I decided to make it myself. While I find beautiful and thoughtful vintage children’s furniture in Europe, to me the current offer lacked options. A lot of what’s out there is plastic, short-lived and overly cutesy. Who said a child’s chair needs bunny ears to please. I wanted practical, ethically made and beautiful pieces that could live a long life in people’s homes, in or outside of the playroom. We’ve lived with those first prototypes for a couple of years now and every time someone would visit, they would comment the furniture. I started developing the collection and found it refreshing to be able to develop design ideas without the interference of a client. When I pitched House of RoRo and T Magazine agreed to feature the launch there was no backing up, and here I am 5 months later!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
House of RoRo is a creative design studio for children’s furniture and objects. It stands at the intersection of practicality and poetry. We strive to make high-quality furniture in a sustainable way without compromising on beauty. The Interlockables collection is flatpack furniture “puzzle pieces” a child can assemble themselves, with a little help from a parent.

Too often, children’s furniture is considered short-lived and tends to be thrown out after a couple of years, if not less. House of RoRo, on the other hand, has furniture that grows with the children. We wanted a collection that would be timeless and versatile. A child won’t like a piece of furniture just because it’s cute, but because it’s ergonomic. Maybe also because they helped build it, they can hide things in it, interact with the furniture, and so on. On the other hand, we as parents want the furniture to look good in the living room and not have to hide it away in a playroom or kids’ bedroom. On top of that, when a child needs their first chair, it’s also right about the time when the toys start multiplying. It made sense to me to want to combine some of that furniture with storage.

So today, I am very proud to have launched a brand where there are no compromises on either ethics or aesthetics. Our furniture is made locally by passionate makers who are paid fair wages. We produce in small batches, so there’s no waste. We even use up our tiny pieces of material leftovers for samples or puzzles.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
That would be my son Iggy. He’s the one I’ve started designing the furniture for and he’s been both an inspiration and a motivator throughout. It’s been double because obviously starting a business takes a lot of your time and I have felt guilty about temporarily not being so available to him. That said it was important for me to show him the effort and hard work that goes into making dreams happen.

Website: https://houseofroro.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/house.of.roro/

Image Credits
Photo Courtesy House of RoRo