(Photo from Dokan Dapicture)
Furniture constitutes the bulk of items bought for interior décor. Home accessories are a way to add your own signature, Nuhier Sheta and Sameh Abdel Fattah realised, and for this reason, they opened Dokan Dapicture.
Abdel Fattah provided us with more information: “Nuhier was always fond of decoration and arts in general since her early years and had her first shop, Vari, right after her college graduation in 2000. The shop name came from Variety and she used to have her own handmade work sold there, in addition to imported goods from Italy,” he said, “I manage the shop’s online presence and IT related matters.”
He added that Sheta’s family is very artistic and that her many travels helped her develop her own designer style. Sheta had no formal training, but keeps up with international and local trends by following many sources of inspiration. She uses a wide array of materials, such as wood, ceramic, fabrics and Plexiglass, among others.
The source for the materials depends on the design; some are local while others are imported. “A lot of our products are ready made, but many others are hand made by some friends, family members, and vendors as well,” Abdel Fattah explained.
He said that their work process depends on demand. “Inspiration comes from day to day work at the stores and customer interaction; based on what is trendy or most requested, we start to work on the idea and then go to the relevant source that will execute,” Abdel Fattah said. He also added that not all of the products on display are hand-made or an original design, but that the ones created by them are clearly labelled as Dapicture designs.
In addition to the online store on Facebook, they have a showroom in Heliopolis. “We rely heavily on Facebook ads and word of mouth. In addition, we keep introducing new items all the time to maintain the customers’ interest in our Facebook page and to lure them into visiting the showroom,” Abdel Fattah stated.
The newest collection at the moment is the Christmas collection, which is available on their Facebook page. “It will be followed by our furniture collection very soon [tables and storage units] all made in Egypt in Nuhier’s Family furniture factory,” Abdel Fattah added.
