WHO WE ARE

We are Martin and Amy Dohnalek, a husband and wife duo who founded Barnabas in 2017. We save, popularise, refurbish and sell 20th century furniture as well as lightning and homeware, made (mainly) in former Czechoslovakia.

We are named after Martin's grandfather, Barnabas, a great man who lived in Czechoslovakia during difficult times in the 20th century but always surrounded himself with amazing furniture. Inspired by this rich heritage, we believe in restoring original pieces to their true glory and celebrating the story that they have to tell.

We come from a background of design and architecture, and after working in London for ten years, we are now based in Brno - a city with a great tradition of modernist architecture and graphic design - with our daughter Ruby and son Alfred. 

WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO

With new furniture being produced and replaced within the lifecycle of 6-12 months, we want to champion longevity and timelessness.

So much of good design has been discarded, thoughtlessly thrown away or simply neglected. At Barnabas, we believe that Czech furniture and design is yet to be fully discovered or appreciated and our mission is to introduce the pieces and the people behind them to the world.

In addition, we want to counter the speed and fast-paced consumerism that has surrounded furniture and interior design. We slow it down, taking time to breathe new life into old pieces. We read and research the forgotten stories behind each item in the collection, building and protecting our heritage for future generations.

We believe in the concept to buy less, but buy better.

WHAT WE DO

We collect pieces from around Czechia before restoring them. Our restoration is carefully undertaken to ensure that the original charm and character of every item is retained where possible.

We sell both to the general public and private clients with bespoke projects. We regularly source items on behalf of architects & interior designers.

We are based in Brno, in Czechia. But we mainly ship to France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as further afield to America and South Korea. You can see the final homes of some of our pieces here!

We have strong partnerships with shipping companies such as FedEX and ship pieces safely throughout the world.

We strive to make Barnabas as sustainable as possible, and use recycled cardboard for our packaging as well as offsetting the carbon footprint of delivery services by contributing monthly to TreeNation.

If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at info@bybarnabas.com.

For  further information on our terms and conditions click here.