Not all art hangs on the wall.
Some can be sat on, dined upon or used for storage.
MICHAEL OGUNS
Michael Oguns's armoires are the equivalent of Ferraris,
his inlaid dining tables worthy of the Rolls Royce set
and his desks would please a Mercedes-Benz owner.
But he would he delighted if Chevy drivers could own
his furniture. "I want to design affordable pieces for
stores, such as a line of chairs that would sell for
$300 to $400," said Oguns, 48, who named his showroom
at DCOTA Michael O. "I would like to be a household
name."
Oguns believes many people appreciate fine design but
can't afford it. "There are a lot of details in my
pieces," he said, "If I can narrow them down and keep
the style there but I would probably have to have them
manufactured overseas to keep the furniture affordable."
Oguns’ expensive designer furniture—his coffee tables
range from $6,000 to $10,000—is handcrafted in a factory
on the edge of Miami's Little Haiti. He calls it his
'United Nations' because his 10 employees hail from
many countries.
His own home country is Nigeria, where as a youngster
he made wood bikes and bird cages to sell. He studied
structural engineering at Nigerian Polytechnic and came
to the United States in 1972. After three months in
Washington, D.C., Oguns moved to Miami and enrolled at
Miami-Dade Community College to study architectural
technology. He also took MDCC’s two year nursing course
and became a licensed practical nurse.
After working as a nurse for five years, he had enough
money saved to start a furniture business.
Oguns oversees every detail of his work at his factory,
leaving the day to day management of his DCOTA showroom
to Susan Pyne.
