In Good Company

October 23rd, 2019.

It’s a very tactile space. One can’t help but run a hand over the stunning Moon Dining Table by Copenhagen’s talented Gubi studio that dominates the centre of the showroom and acts as a gentle navigator of the space. A seamless interruption that wordlessly invites visitors to stop just inside the entrance and take it all in. 

Louise and John Bastiras opened the doors of In Good Company’s flagship showroom only 5 weeks ago. Yet, the lead up to its inception has been an organic journey beginning in Adelaide and meandering through Sydney before finally culminating in Melbourne where the two have been immersed in the world of interior design and styling for over a decade. Not only do Louise and John share a personal life (and child and dog) together, they are two halves of a complimentary whole when it comes to their business as well. Both come from opposite ends of the design industry spectrum with their mutual love for a similar design aesthetic knitting together their professional leanings. Louise’s vocational road began in Adelaide where, after studying Interior Architecture, she worked for furniture design collective Living Edge, before later joining the Hub Furniture team in Melbourne. It was on a Sydney visit to attend the annual industry event, Saturday In Design, that her path crossed with John’s. 

John, also originally from Adelaide, had been living in Melbourne for some time running Luke Furniture. With a background in architectural drafting and a passion for furniture design and carpentry, John’s professional aptitude was the perfect symbiotic balance for Louise’s contract and commercial furniture and design strengths. Together they have established arguably one of Melbourne’s most cohesive collections of authentic, local and vintage furniture, first via Luke Furniture and now with their own endeavour – In Good Company. 

The combinations of their unique skillsets, along with carefully nurtured relationships between industy and consumer alike, ensure that the offering Louise and John bring to the design industry is staggering. Between them they represent a significant Melbourne presence of European furniture design elites – Herman Miller, Muuto,Woud, Iittalia etc.,  support significant local furniture design talent including John’s own custom pieces which exhibit a profound technical understanding of carpentry and the power of good manufacturing, and offer an often elusive in-depth spatial understanding of the inseparable relationship that exists between furniture, layout and scale.

Between them, John and Louise have a powerful understanding of a growing market in Melbourne and beyond – apartment living. With smaller footprints and transient spaces that are expected to function in numerous capacities, the ability to fulfil a brief via custom furniture options and creative thinking is extremely valuable. Louise is familiar with the need to provide novel solutions to spaces such as considering the aesthetic of an everyday object that, once tucked away to be retrieved if and when, may now need to perform its primary role as well as look good in the greater styling of an apartment. Or the power of selecting a piece of furniture that operates with dual function, or can free up valuable floor space to occupy the available expanse of vertical real estate by relocating a floor lamp to a wall bracket design for example. 

In Good Company has come along at the perfect juncture between Melbourne’s burgeoning acceptance and embracing of apartment living, as well as in John and Louise’s personal journey within their private lives and careers. It is the serendipitous coming together of life’s ever present personal and professional persona’s in a time when we can all learn something from them to incorpate into our own homes.

Images of Jewell Station by NEOMETRO by Derek Swalwell.

Furniture from In Good Company with styling by Nina Provan.

Written by Tiffany Jade.