When Christa Botha and Carla Erasmus joined forces to found Bofred in Cape Town in 2014, it was rooted in a shared love of travel and a background in fine arts. This shared sense of wanderlust and appreciation of beauty inspired the pair to establish an independent, female-run furniture and lighting studio in South Africa.

Today, Bofred is perhaps best known for drawing from far-flung wells of inspiration to contribute to the growth and prosperity of skilled Cape Town makers, artisans, and manufacturers. Driven by intuition and concept, the Bofred design methodology is fluid and collection-based, blurring the line between art and furniture to yield carefully considered, functional objects crafted with a refreshing approach to conventional materials.

Combining modernist elements with authentic craft and storytelling, they seek to celebrate and showcase natural materials like wood, clay, stone, and metals, with each collection's colors and product names providing insight into the stories and memories that inspired it. As they grow as designers and friends, each shift into a new season of life makes it all the more gratifying and important to translate the subtleties of time and place to create beautiful, relevant, and useful objects.

Learn more about this artisan partner on Expresso Show Feature Video: Design ZA Bofred or Decorex Design Trail 2021 Video featuring BoFred.