The Ornate story

Your home has a story. So does ours.

It started in 2015 with a road trip through Rajasthan.

I was driving through dusty markets and village workshops when I saw something that stopped me — artisans turning old doors into tables, scrap cloth into quilts, waste denim into rugs. Every piece was alive with skill, patience, and centuries of inherited knowledge. And nobody outside those villages knew it existed.

I was living in Bahrain at the time. I started buying pieces on those trips and sharing them with friends nearby. Word spread. People wanted more. What began as a passion became something bigger than I expected.

 

 

 

Building Ornate — from a suitcase to a company

In 2015, Ornate started the way most real businesses do — informally, from home, driven by love for the craft. I was scouring Jaipur for pieces and shipping them to friends in Bahrain, learning as I went.

By 2016 the demand had grown enough that my family moved back to India. In 2017 we formally registered Ornate Arthouse Pvt Ltd and launched our website — adding throws, baskets, and kantha quilts alongside the rugs that had started it all.

Later that year we moved back to the Gulf and brought my brother on as a partner to help manage international shipping as our Etsy store began reaching customers in the US and beyond. Since 2018 we've been based in Abu Dhabi — our home, and the hub for inspiration !

What we believe

We believe a home should be a collection of stories, not a showroom of matching sets. Our pieces aren't made in factories — they are made by human hands, on heritage looms, in small workshops and backyards in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.

When you buy from Ornate, you are buying directly from us — a small family business with no middlemen, no warehouses, no investor pressure. Just a deep commitment to the artisans who make everything we sell.

Every piece purchased supports a real family. Every order helps preserve a craft that could otherwise disappear.

 

 

10 years. 400+ five-star reviews. The same mission.

We started in 2015 with one simple idea — bring the world's most beautiful handmade things to homes that deserve them. A decade later, that's still all we're doing.

Thank you for being part of it.

Vidhi Founder, Ornate Handicrafts Abu Dhabi, UAE