The Kokum Tree

I grew up five minutes from Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, India. The palace was part of the walk to school, to the market, to everywhere. Its honeycombed stone façade, the way it turned orange-gold in the late afternoon — that was my everyday.

When you grow up inside that much colour and craft, it gets into you before you can name it.

I moved to Canada years later and built a home here. A good home. But something kept pulling at me; the flatness of so much mass-produced décor. Furniture you couldn't remember. Cushions that matched but said nothing.

So I started The Kokum Tree. A small curated collection of handcrafted pieces — throws, blankets, cushion covers — made by artisans whose skills are generations old. Kantha quilting from Bengal. Suzani embroidery from Central Asia. Block-printed cottons from Rajasthan. Each piece has a making history that most home décor pretends doesn't exist.

The name comes from the kokum fruit which is a little-known ingredient native to coastal India, deep-red and fiercely tart. It's nothing like the polished, universally-palatable options on every shelf. That felt right.