Your rooms could feel like you’ve been transported to a sunny destination somewhere in the Mediterranean without leaving your home.
With the birth of twins, followed by the expectancy of a third child the following year, Lina Awad knew that returning to her job as an industrial engineer would prove too difficult. Having always possessed an artistic flair, Awad decided to play around with the idea of creating designs for artwork and clothing.
By 2013 Lina had launched MaRiTama Home, the name of which held a special reference to her three daughters: Mariam, Rita and Tamara.
In June 2018, Lina and her family moved to Oakville, Ontario, directly from Greece. It was then that Awad decided to expand her creative scope to applications on furniture.
With no formal education in the arts, Awad confesses that she is self-taught, with some guidance from YouTube videos and online classes, but her designs are self-inspired.
Awad refinishes, refurbishes and restores pieces so beautifully that her work epitomizes the popular phrase, what was once old, is new again when commissioned to complete her works of art on your piece of tired, damaged, or overly-loved furnishings.
Not a unique service on its own; pieces from MaRiTama Home are unlike the works of others,
with their vibrant colours and unique patterns. Lina draws her inspiration from the beauty that surrounded her during the 22 years that she had spent living in Greece. By word-of-mouth, MaRiTama Home pieces could be found for sale in local shops in no time at all.
Awad recognized that she needed to create an online presence during the pandemic. Not being tech-savvy, Awad turned to Digital Main St.’s ShopHere Program for the complete technical support she needed to compose and construct a free website on her own. “During the pandemic, because people were spending a lot of time at home, they needed to make their spaces more exciting to live in. Requests to refurbish and refinish existing pieces blew up.”
Through self-marketing using Instagram and Facebook only, within three years, Awad has successfully drawn local attention to her work and garnered several notable social media shoutouts from paint and colour expert Annie Sloan. Her Etsy account has since amassed a growing business from Florida, New York, Texas, California and the Bahamas.
In the summer of 2021, MaRiTama Home branched out into customizing furniture, an opportunity Lina saw to work closely on projects with her husband, whose hobby is carpentry.
This past December, the One of a Kind Show in Toronto returned to its in-person format, where MaRiTama Home occupied a space. Awad admits that while most guests aren’t prepared to walk away with large pieces of furniture at the event, “last winter, many people commissioned my service to refinish and refurbish their existing pieces after seeing my work.”
This presented Awad with the additional opportunity of sourcing pieces to refurbish based on customer visions of what they want.
MaRiTama Home will be returning to the spring One of a Kind Show that begins Wednesday, March 30, 2022, and runs through to Sunday, April 3, 2022.
Full details for the spring event and a complete Maker listing can be found on the One of a Kind Show website. Please note that tickets this year can only be purchased online. GO Transit is again offering the train/event ticket combo to avoid parking. If you don’t need the train, use "SPRING" promo code for 20% off your entry fee.