Company Profile

Byron & Byron is a fine example of a company that started life in 1980’s London, a period of high excitement and opportunity for young, energetic and highly entrepreneurial individuals.

Its founder, Orazio Gualtieri, a twenty something Italian, with a background in the furniture and picture framing industries, was looking for a suitable product to launch his own enterprise. While searching for a pole for his own home, and failing to find anything desirable, he identified a gap in the market . The design manufacture of a limited range of wooden poles and finials in traditional gilt and polished finishes, was a logical step for someone with a broad knowledge of wood finishing and the design requirements of a rapidly expanding interiors market.

As is the case with many young, small companies, Byron & Byron could afford to be innovative and sometimes outrageous. A key element to this hands on approach to design was the presence of their own small workshop on the premises. This allowed Orazio to be creative and experimental with finishes and to be very responsive to new ideas and trends. Soon the collection expanded from a restrained palette of Biedermeier style French polished items, to decoupage poles and an extensive range of paint finishes and increasingly flamboyant finial styles. A fish head and tail, cast in resin, gilded and photographed on the ends of a pole,as a joke, captured the public's attention and had to be added to a collection of marine finials and accessories.

As the company has grown, so have its ranges and expertise in both finishing and design. While production has become increasingly mechanised, all items are finished on site and the company still places huge emphasis on the importance of craftsmanship in the design process. Nineteen years later the company is no longer a handful of inexperienced individuals but a business with 50 full time employees. Successful new designs are now the product of experience and expertise rather than youthful exuberance. However the core values remain unchanged, a passion for the product, a love of flamboyance and a determination not to stand still in an ever changing marketplace.

Colour Therapy with Byron & Byron

We are in a world where colour dominates our lives, from reading signs on the road to seeing if fruit is ripe to eat. It affects our moods - blue is calming - red can make us tense..

New Curtain Poles Collection