How Thout’s Patrick Turner would spend $4,000
Patrick Turner is the designing mind behind Thout, one of Toronto’s most clamoured-after makers of furniture, lighting and shelving. Established in 2007, the firm is already internationally acclaimed for its clever, contemporary designs. (Turner has just returned from Saudi Arabia after presenting a “top-secret project” to the king himself.) But commoners can lay hands on Thout’s offerings, too: select pieces will soon be sold at home retailer EQ3. We climbed into Turner’s office—a treehouse-like room overlooking a forest of tools, stools and table legs—to chat about what’s worth breaking the bank for.
Your Oldschool table was everywhere for a while. How many actually ended up in living rooms?
Only a handful. There was one in the window of Ministry of the Interior for a long time, and it generated a lot of interest, but who was going to buy it? It was $4,000. It was prohibitively overpriced.
Why was it overpriced?
I have no control over the price of that table. Retailers set the price.
If you had an extra $4,000, what would you buy?
I would get a Desktop Factory 125ci 3D printer.
And what’s your most indulgent buy of late?
A car.
What’s your favourite thing you didn’t make but wish you had?
The chair you’re sitting on. Eames shell chair, 1973.
Thout’s pop-up shop beside the Drake Hotel was a hit in October. What’s your next big idea?
I’m starting a sort of club—it’s not official yet—of about eight or nine designers. We’re thinking of road tripping to the next ICFF [International Contemporary Furniture Fair] in New York. But mostly we just sit around at the Beaconsfield and drink.
 But commoners can lay hands on Thout’s offerings, too: select pieces will soon be sold at home retailer EQ3. We climbed into Turner’s office—a treehouse-like room overlooking a forest of tools, stools and table legs—to chat about what’s worth breaking the bank for.
[caption id="attachment_6441" align="aligncenter" width="580" caption="Turner surrounded by Thout's Holey Stump stools and Block chairs. (Photo by Jenna Marie Wakani)"][/caption]
Your Oldschool table was everywhere for a while. How many actually ended up in living rooms?
Only a handful. There was one in the window of Ministry of the Interior for a long time, and it generated a lot of interest, but who was going to buy it? It was $4,000. It was prohibitively overpriced.
Why was it overpriced?
I have no control over the price of that table. Retailers set the price.
If you had an extra $4,000, what would you buy?
I would get a Desktop Factory 125ci 3D printer.
And what’s your most indulgent buy of late?
A car.
What’s your favourite thing you didn't make but wish you had?
The chair you’re sitting on. Eames shell chair, 1973.
Thout’s pop-up shop beside the Drake Hotel was a hit in October. What’s your next big idea?
I’m starting a sort of club—it’s not official yet—of about eight or nine designers. We’re thinking of road tripping to the next ICFF [International Contemporary Furniture Fair] in New York. But mostly we just sit around at the Beaconsfield and drink.){kind=link}