Conventional furniture often times clutters small living spaces.
Woodcrafter Cyrus Ageemoolar custom designs may be just the right fit.
Ageemoolar's main focus is to make furniture for smaller spaces that cannot accommodate traditional furniture.
While the 19-year-old is not limiting himself to that category, he enjoys coming up with innovative ways to make small spaces functional and beautiful with the use of iron and wood.
Ageemoolar first dabbled in making furniture when he needed a desk for his room but did not have the space for a conventional design. He saw a video on YouTube of a Murphy desk, one that is mounted to the wall, constructed out of wood. He showed his father, a fabricator and welder, and together, they made one out of iron.
Two years later, in 2020, he finished secondary school at ASJA Boys' College in San Fernando but had no idea what he wanted to do with his life.
[caption id="attachment_986641" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Cyrus Ageemoolar applies wood glue to one of his designs at his workshop at his La Romaine home. - Lincoln Holder[/caption]
“It was getting really frustrating, sitting home, doing nothing, and seeing everyone you went to school with doing something.”
So he decided to make some Murphy desks out of iron and fibreboard, and try to sell them on Facebook Marketplace.
“I wanted to make some to sell because I was pretty sure a lot of people had the same problem I had: they want a table in their room but the space is so limited. So I made a couple of those tables and that was it.
“People were messaging me, asking for different Murphy desk designs, or if I could do this and that. Even if I had no experience doing it, I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. I’m doing that.’ I figured it out and I was surprised how good they came out. I didn’t even know I could do it!”
One client asked if he could make a Murphy desk out of wood and he agreed, even though he had never worked with wood before. But, he had, and still gets, guidance from a friend of his father, who was a woodworker. Then he worked out a solution and just did it.
Ageemoolar said he learned the basics of fabrication from his father, as well as by watching HGTV and YouTube videos. He also worked with his father on jobs, and still does, but he picked up woodwork by himself.
While he continues to work with his father doing welding and fabricating, he also does his own ironwork such as gates, burglar proof, and windows. However, his passion is for woodwork so he is putting all his effort into his furniture, building shelves, tables, cabinets and more at his La Romaine home.
[caption id="attachment_986643" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Cyrus Ageemoolar at his workshop at his La Romaine home. - Lincoln Holder[/caption]
He said he uses computer-aided designs so his clients could see a 3D representation of the product before it is built, which allows for adjustments.
Ageemoolar told Sunday Newsday he believed the seed for woodworking was planted when he was around eight years old. His parents were opening a g
