Other Women's Jobs / Amy Durnford

NAME: Amy Durnford, Founder of Custom No.9

INSTAGRAM HANDLE: @custom_no.9  

JOB TITLE: Founder of Custom No.9 

MOVED TO THE UAE IN: August 2013

Amy Durnford is the Founder of Custom No.9, Dubai’s bespoke homegrown furniture and interiors brand. Consciously created for design-savvy, planet conscious aesthetes, in barely four years Amy Durnford has steered Custom No.9 amongst one of the Middle East’s most coveted home-grown furniture brands.

Custom No.9 is a made to order furniture brand founded by Amy Durnford, with a vision to bring a new realm of customised furniture to the UAE market. Established in 2019, Custom No.9 was born from a desire to introduce a more creative approach to curating furniture for the home; by putting the customer in the designer’s seat.  

Like many, Amy Durnford ventured into the business of creating furniture out of necessity when she couldn’t find what she was looking for locally in the UAE. Being a home-grown brand in a market saturated with expensive, imported labels and a clutch of regional makers with a massive following was never going to be easy, but she steered Custom No.9 through the pandemic with aplomb and creativity, emerging as a serious, quality-conscious name.

The brand offers an array of contemporary designs that are customisable in shape, materials, colour and size, through its ecommerce platform. A mix of angular, rounded, and geometric shapes combined with nostalgic materials make up the collections. Whilst bold in their own way, they are all rooted in a simplistic ethos.

For as long as Amy can remember, she’s always had a very strong desire to create, and to be in a role where she is constantly challenging herself in a creative environment. Custom No.9 was born when she sought out to furnish her first apartment in Dubai. Not being able to find what she was looking for in the market at the time, she utilised the network she had built working with an award-winning experiential marketing agency to design her dining table, coffee table and accessories. Back then, she really felt that there was customer demand for a more creative and hands-on approach to furnishing your home. There were many global brands retailing mass produced items, along with workshops who could pull together to make a piece from a picture, but there was little in the way of a customer-focused, design-led approach.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF:

5:30 AM / 5:45 AM

My daughter wakes up, we bring her into bed and we snuggle in bed together whilst I feed her.

6:30 AM

I always try to squeeze a workout or run in at this time. It sets me up for the day and I always feel like I have a clear head after!

7:30 AM

I’m really enjoying the weather at the moment and try to use this time to go for a bike ride or walk around my community with my daughter.  

8:30 AM

It’s time to get ready! I make a smoothie every morning and then head to get ready for the day ahead. 

9 AM

I tend to catch up on emails and various calls at home or I try to try and put site visits or factory visits in at this time to check progress on manufacturing for products or builds at site. 

10:00 AM 

I usually then head to Custom No.9’s studio in Al Quoz where my day consists of catching up with the team, reviewing designs, attending design review meetings, solving any potential issues or problems and meeting with clients that pop in to see us for coffee and to discuss orders.

4 PM

Home to my baby girl – I like to carve out at least 2 hours of time before she goes to bed and try to make it quality time – like a cycle, walk, park, beach or swim.

This is loose schedule – grateful to be able to have it and I’m still trying to find the balance with being a Mum! 

6 PM

Dinner & bedtime for Bonnie 

7 PM 

Light a candle, put some music on, eat dinner with my husband/catch up with him – he is my sounding board for basically every decision I make so dinner on weeknights typically ends in a bit of a brainstorming session! 

Then typically I’m back on my laptop catching up from the day ahead of the following day.