With Qatar National Day fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to write about one of my favorite home-grown crafts – the Qatari wooden bench. Found everywhere all over town, but particularly in Souq Waqif, the main shopping and eating artery where we recently devoured the cheapest most delicious meal with some of our very best friends visiting from Japan (all while sitting on some of these benches)…
…and Katara, the stunning cultural village out towards The Pearl. The benches are charming, surprisingly comfortable and visually arresting.
It was a wonderful surprise to discover that they are readily available, customizable and very inexpensive to have made by local carpenters tucked behind Al Rayyan Road along Al Shagab Street – I’ll call it the “bench souq”. This is definitely a spot you’ll be hearing about in my “Doha Design & Decor Directory” that will be added to the blog in the new year, but more about that another time. With an empty back patio to fill and gorgeous weather for sitting outside, I have been desperate to furnish my garden space but didn’t want to spend a lot of money (nothing lasts in the summer sun for long) nor choose something out of context. The space is square, with lots of fuchsia Bougainvillea hanging over it.
Looking back towards the house I have started to find plants for my blue and white hibachi and planters (post on those coming in the new year as well). As this brick patio lines up directly with the living room/dining room, the view of what is out here is quite important.
On my first visit to the bench souq I saw numerous varieties of this traditional seating of varying style and quality. Most of the benches are designed to be painted and there is a large roster of bright colors. I am super tempted to go with a color, but worry that it will be too distracting from inside the house. Instagram friends have suggested going with blue or green for the benches, and even coral, all of which sound appealing, but I’m not sure I want to pull that much attention from the interior.
I left that first visit full of ideas while a friend here went ahead and ordered the simple benches above. They were finished within the week and when we went back today they were loaded up on a truck and delivered to her house.
Another carpenter had a few more unusual choices including this bench with finials similar to the green one I love in the top photo from Souq Waqif. This blue is also dreamy color!
But I fell in love with a more finished (and thus more expensive) bench featuring a traditional dowel musharrabieh (or moucharabieh or mashrabiya, the myriad of spellings is endless) the latticework so often used for window coverings in Arab architecture. It’s often said they are used to allow women to see out, but keep others from seeing in. I’m not sure that this is really true but I loved it as a decorative feature in these benches.
The carpenters are looking into getting me a white stain, instead of paint, as I think it is the paint that has trouble holding up against the extremities of the elements here. I have been planning on a lush blue and white backyard oasis for a while now, which was utterly confirmed when Vogue published Rebecca de Ravenel’s gorgeous NYC terrace recently. Ticking, Indian block prints from Brigitte Singh and blue and white porcelain. Need I say more? I keep finding inspiring things in her apartment (as in this post) and I’m sure you’ll be seeing more of it.
White with a bit of wood grain peeking through will be soft against the white garden walls and it gives me the perfect backdrop to mix blue and white with the bright pinks, greens and yellows found elsewhere in the garden flowers. It is pretty standard to get long cushions made to soften the hard seat of the benches, usually in a traditional red Arabic fabric. I decided to buck the trend and look for something a little more western for contrast. I think the cushions will only last a year or so, so budget was key. I could not have been happier to find this new IKEA fabric called Angsrutta for about $5 a meter. It works on so many levels!
Not to forget to mention that I am having a giant coffee table made to sit between them, much like this one, perfect for casual dining and hors d’oeuvres. This also gives you a peek at how bright the paint colors can be and the traditional red fabric used for the seat cushions.
So I bit the bullet and placed my order today. We will have to see what gets lost in translation – surely something will – but I can always have them repainted if necessary. Here’s to cocktails in the garden in the new year!
Pip
Fabulous! Px
Steve@AnUrbanCottage
I loved the turquoise version when I saw it on IG but I have to agree the one with the lattice background is amazing. It would be gorgeous in white stain.
Margot von Muhlendahl
Lovely benches. Get the deepest ones you can find and use big, soft back cushions. From many, many years of experience in similar climates, I strongly advise using a white oil stain on your garden furniture. Osmo Oil (Google it) is the best I have found and will protect the wood. You can reapply every year.
Cushions: for seats and leaving permanently out, that IKEA fabric will disintegrate in the sun. You need a Sunbrella or a good canvas, or jean material works well if you cannot find Sunbrella. The advantage of Sunbrella is that it is waterproof so you don’t get a soggy cushion if it rains. If you use plain canvas or jean fabric, wrap your bare cushions in dry cleaner bags under the cushion covers. You can introduce the color and pattern in more delicate throw pillows which you can bring inside to preserve.
Another good solution for flat cushions is rag rugs, which you might be able to have made to size locally with scrap fabrics of your own color choice. I learned this from the Greek shepherds. They are very sturdy and can last for years, fading gently. I have used them for twenty years in Mediterranean sun. They don’t show dirt and wash well. And you can use coordinating larger rag rugs and cushions on the patio floor as well.
Best of luck.
Margot von Muhlendahl Trogerstrasse 54 81675 Munich +49 89 413 53 763 Tel +49 151 2333 5823 Mob +1 312 752-5784 U.S. Mob Sent from my iPad
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Raymond Mayer
Love this!!!
Sent from my iPhone
Kathleen
I love these benches and knew it wouldn’t take long for you to suss out the local specialties. Does Doha have an equivalent to shrine (mosque?) sales, if so, you may need to rename your glob-trotting blog.
Carol Livingstone
Don’t you want to ship some of these benches to Ocean Grove? I see a pair of them sitting in your yard in front of the flowers.
Anne
These benches are all beautiful. I love the look of wood and wicker together and it can be used outdoors or indoors – very durable.
Carnation Fixation…Ottoman Inspired Textiles | Tokyo Jinja
[…] Location really hones the eye and I find that as I settle into my new home, certain design motifs are coming to the forefront of my vision. It’s not that I am abandoning my love of sho-chiku-bai, ami, kamon or the rest of the lexicon of Japanese pattern, just that I am deeply interested in adding to it. Long time unexplored favorites, such as the stylized Ottoman carnations seen on this 17th century Turkish cushion at The Museum of Islamic Art here in Doha are catching and fixing my eye. Similar velvet cushions and fragments of this pattern can be found in the collections of museums worldwide, from here to here to here to here and I’ve stumbled across it in a few antique shops. I honestly think this velvet was the equivalent of the modern-day cushion covers we see on benches in the souq. […]
Helen
Hi there, we are recent arrivals to Doha and desperate to get a traditional bench. Please can you send a link to a map showing where your bench souq is located?!
Maggie
Can you give me an idea of cost? We’re off to find the bench souq this afternoon. It’s only a few minutes from us. Thanks for this.
Maggie
Helen Here’s where it is
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Al+Rayyan+Village,+Jasim+Bin+Hamad+St,+Doha,+Qatar/Al+Shagab+St,+Ar-Rayy%C4%81n,+Qatar/@25.3003325,51.4518192,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x3e45db1bbd5d80cd:0x12220d3c4ae5413a!2m2!1d51.48676!2d25.296786!1m5!1m1!1s0x3e45dbeda6f4021f:0xbd01b2bb1fdf26b1!2m2!1d51.4492164!2d25.3068187!3e0
Tokyo Jinja
Hi Maggie-
I hope you had fun getting your benches – would love to see what you chose. And thanks so much for the map link – I have been trying to make one with no luck and I am going to add it into the text of the post.
Cheers,
Jacqueline