THE ART OF RECYCLING : LIVING GREEN FURNITURE CURACAO

hen lack of unique outdoor furniture, drives you to make your own and that is exactly what high school teacher Eugene Maduro did. He made his own furniture and he couldn't imagine that after 9 years, he's got a thriving custom made furniture business made with recycled wood from monuments of Curacao.

Living Green Furniture Curacao has won 2 awards (JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Award 2010 and Guardian Group Best in Business Award 2014) and has been a finalist (BPM Curacao Awards).

But from where did his inspiration get an extra push?

'The inspiration boost came from my wife, Susan. Women are the ones that do most of the decorating in homes, so when she was all for it to start this business, that was it: BINGO. After a year of several requests from others, I decided to make my concept official. As I didn't see myself as a carpenter, but found myself to be an entrepreneur, I seek out carpenters to work with and for me'.

When doing so, he opened more work opportunities for others. This of course is a boost for the economy of Curacao. One thing he decided from the beginning was to go green with the carpentry. Why you may ask?

'The advantages of working with the green concept (or another word recycling), is that we started the business without spending any money. Just a lot of work, hard work. At a certain point, I became like an compulsive collector. The other advantage of that, was that we had then lots of material to work with and the creativity became limitless.'

The wood comes from our old monuments and old houses that are more 75 years and older. But also from places like the pier or landing stage in our harbor or wood from the Emma bridge (a.k.a The old swinging lady which was built by Leonard B. Smith in 1890). That makes their furniture even more interesting, because every piece of furniture has a story to tell.

'We try to let others understand that they can re-use the wood again, instead of buying new wood to make furniture. Living Green has the sole purpose to help preserve the environment why re-using old wood, but to turn it into something with a practical use.'

What he loves most of all of his work, is the preparations of it. When he's searching for the right wood and at the end of the day, he might be completely dirty but it's something that has kept him humble.

The passion of seeing the wood in a ruinous state and the ability to make something beautiful out of it is the drive that keeps Living Green going strong till this day.

Living Green has managed from day one to export their furniture, which is made from authentic wood from Curacao, to our neighbor islands, Bonaire and Aruba. But the furniture has also seen the light of day in Belgium and the Netherlands.

His authentic furniture will be also part of this great event. You can't miss that!