KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Loh Jon Ming thought he’d try making a wedding arch for his brother and along the way, he and his fiancée Tan Q-Pei fell in love with woodworking and started Random Bean together last September. Loh also co-founded EPIC Homes, an organisation that builds houses for Orang Asli.
“The name Random Bean is inspired by the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk. In the story, Jack’s family threw the beans out. For us, the bean is like an idea we want to test out. It is like people didn’t want to believe in the bean because it is a random bean but it is a fruitful bean,” said Loh. Similarly, their logo on Instagram depicts a whimsical bean in pink.
“We always believe that the stuff that we produce are only the results of a well-developed mindset and a strong set of principles. The rest manifests through our flexibility to adapt to different contexts, needs and circumstances (for example, personal customer tastes, limited salvaged resources, design outlooks and trends).”
There’s also a green element to Random Bean’s business, as they prefer to recycle/repurpose used wood to create their beautiful wedding arches. For instance, the wedding arch created for Loh’s brother’s wedding was taken from a young dying tree in an Orang Asli village in Kuala Kubu Bahru while he was on an EPIC Homes assignment.
It took him two days to cut it into length and drill holes for the bolts. “It is turning nothing into something. We make art from people’s rubbish by recycling wood,” said Tan. The wood is sourced from people around town, friends and family who are aware of their wood collection.
Loh has also used wood from his neighbourhood before, getting it from his park. Sourcing for the wood is usually a hit and miss situation. “We are still learning how to identify the different tree species around town. As the wood is mostly cut and left by the road, we are unable to see its beauty at first.”
After Loh’s brother’s wedding, they got many inquiries about the wedding arch. Although the wedding arch is the most popular item from Random Bean, the ever-practical co-founders prefer to rent the arch, rather than sell it. Since weddings only happen once in a lifetime for most, it wouldn’t make sense for people to buy it. “We like to make things convenient for people so most of our things are D-I-Y. We don’t provide completed sets so people can easily pack and move the items, assembling them when needed. Our objective is to create beautiful pieces that are functional,” said Loh. Other pieces that Random Bean make are wooden cake stands, which can also be used for weddings or other occasions.
“The whole idea of assembling by yourself was inspired by the concept of EPIC Homes’ design where it is pre-fabricated to ease construction, adopting the mindset that ‘anyone can build.’ It takes 45 minutes to assemble the arch” said Tan. The wedding arch is easily assembled by following a manual and a video tutorial that was done by Random Bean. The wood pieces are colour coded so it is very Lego-like. By assembling it yourself, you save cost and time. If you prefer that Loh and Tan assemble it for you, they do provide the service but at a cost.
After making the wedding arch, Loh made a wooden iPad stand for his mother for Christmas last year. At that time, his mother did not know how to use the iPad yet so it was very useful. Now she uses the stand to follow recipes when she cooks. “We also made other wood products such as beverage coasters, the bar at my house, side tables, wood murals, coffee tables and even art pieces,” said Loh.
One of the the art pieces he made was an off-cut from a wooden table he made. Although both Loh and Tan do not have any background in woodworking, they enjoy it and learned through trial and error. “It is our fun, dating time,” said Loh.
Random Bean does a lot of wedding items such as the arch, wedding table, pallet photo booth, pergola and other wood stuff you see on Pinterest. They also made planter boxes to put potted plants. Random Bean also does custom jobs and those are priced according to the design and type of wood. Because wood is expensive, the custom items are pricier.
There is also an artistic aspect to Loh’s creations. His first art piece named “Concrete Jungle” balanced out two elements like wood and granite to depict urbanisation. “The inspiration of what to make comes from what we have managed to find or have. ‘Concrete Jungle’ was actually a balance slice piece off of Baymax (our first coffee table) and we thought it was a waste to throw away the nice grain and wood shape, despite its imperfection. It depicts the irony of development where humanity is trying to improve the world and make it easy to use, easy to maintain, easy to dispose, but we are actually making it the opposite.” In future, they hope to make more artistic pieces like this even though there are no concrete ideas on what to create. “There is that lingering thought of creating a skyline of different cities around the world out of timber...”
Most of the customers Random Bean get are DIY brides who find out about them through social media. Loh and Tan use Instagram as their main source of contact so that is how they get customers. “We are doing this part-time so we are not really focused on creating a website or a shop yet.”
Loh’s hobby has always been DIY. It’s a family thing as he enjoys making things out of wood with his father too, who is also an accountant. “More importantly, this hobby stems from his passion to DIY which probably came from his grandfather. Wood is just something that came along with the hipster age (and the renovation in his father’s house),” said Tan.
Tan who is an operations manager for a manufacturing company met Loh when she went for an EPIC Homes building project. Nowadays, the couple spend their weeknights, weekends and public holidays working on wood products. Loh and Tan have their own set of woodworking tools but if they lack anything, Loh has access to EPIC Homes’ workspace which is equipped with home building tools. The most expensive tool he invested in was a chainsaw!
For the couple, woodworking holds a special meaning. “The biggest satisfaction is to make the impossible possible — which is the reason why we really encourage the DIY community. Because everyone has different wants and woodworking allows for that something special to happen, even if it’s out of a piece of scrap.”
Michelle Alice Tan, founder of DESIGNation was a project manager for EPIC Homes so that was how she and Loh got to know each other. So it is no surprise that DESIGNation started stocking Random Bean items. “For DESIGNation, we designed a side table called ‘Have a Cuppa’ which is made of natural wood,” said Tan. Currently sold out, the side tables will only be stocked when the couple find suitable wood pieces, hopefully by next year.
“We do hope to create different things for novelty (limiting to less than five pieces for one design); but if that is what the customer is looking for, we will try our best to meet it.”
In the future, they hope to expand into lamps for the shop. ”When we start making lamps for DESIGNation, we hope to maintain a rustic look. This adds warmth,” said Loh.
For the wedding arches, the rent ranges from RM300 to RM800 depending on the size, set-up and delivery location. Usually it covers a few days for the event but it’s also dependent on Random Bean’s schedule. Random Bean’s wooden items can cost anywhere from RM750 to RM2,000. It all depends on the design, type of wood and complexity of the items. The floral arrangements for the arch are usually done by the bridal party but Random Bean has also started to work with their own florist for a package to add value for their rental customers.
Find out more about Random Bean from www.instagram.com/randombeanmy
You can also buy Random Bean at DESIGNation, Art Row, PUBLIKA Shopping Mall
