About Us

Design is our dNa

It's in everything we do. At Design Nation we are passionate about improving the human experience through transformative, design-led environments. It's the design choices we make that are integral to that.

Over the past 20 years we have created a carefully considered collection of local and global designer furniture and lighting. Our products are designed to move and inspire you. They elicit a sense of familiarity or nostalgia. They offer a special and lasting connection, and carry an innate intelligence and functionality that transcends time, place and application.

Our products are designed to make you feel differently, and transform the way you live and work every day.

about us

With over 20 years' experience in the commercial design industry, Design Nation has built a strong and enduring reputation in furniture, lighting and custom design solutions for workplace, hospitality, residential, education and healthcare environments.

We hold a deep connection to our products, each sourced with careful consideration from renowned and respected suppliers in Australia, Europe and America. Together they represent leadership in research and development, quality production, and design refinement.

We enjoy a special relationship with our brand partners, manufacturers and skilled craftspeople. They share in our passion for transformative design, helping us deliver on some of the region's most celebrated architectural and design projects.

We pride ourselves on providing flexible and efficient service from brief through to delivery. With flagship destinations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane we are able to distribute design-led products right around the nation. Our established and reliable distribution network, built over two decades of business, has also equipped us to service challenging and complex projects in Asia, the Middle East and beyond.

history

Design Nation was founded by the inimitable Marnie Hammond in December 1998 as Cafe Culture. The company started out in Canterbury, Sydney, with a trade showroom supplying café furniture direct to hospitality owners.

Marnie quickly recognised that commodity furniture had a tenuous future and that, where designer furniture was concerned, relationships counted for everything. Her eye of style and unique sense of flair saw her source and import European furniture that felt warm and inviting to the user.

This distinctive approach proved successful and the business expanded into Brisbane in 2003. In 2008 Cafe Culture established a new Sydney showroom in Surry Hills, where it would remain for eight years.

The business expanded when it acquired Insitu Furniture in 2013 and rebranded as Cafe Culture + Insitu. It was an exciting period for the company. New brands such as Hussl, Plank, Zilio and Casamania joined the product range, with a new showroom space in Melbourne.

In 2016 Cafe Culture + Insitu moved from Surry Hills to the neighbouring suburb of Redfern, Sydney. The new space served to re-energise and reconnect the company, and ultimately led to its most exciting and bold development yet: the launch of Design Nation.

We are always on the look out for talented people to join us

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