Alrasayel Nightstand

What was it like for the pioneers of the earliest bi’thah wave? Far from just bell-bottoms, afros and Kenny Rogers, it was accomplishment; determination. It was being the first person in the village to ride a plane. It was reading gibberish through the night. Then chasing down men with jaundiced skin-tones and eyes the color of palm fronds. All in pursuit of that double-digit evaluation, which upon return, made them heroes. “First Saudi to ever...” they dreamed. ⁠⁠
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But it was also the first person to live without a village. It was alienation. Estrangement. Longing. It was early Mohammed Abdu through the night. It was agony and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. For a familiar voice. A familiar face. A letter. ⁠⁠
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Imagine what it meant to send love through a slit in a tin box and pray they receive it?⁠⁠
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These were the questions we pondered when we happened upon these vintage post-boxes in old Riyadh believed to date back to the 1970’s. A time our nation was leapfrogging towards what it has now become on the shoulders of giants, our parents and grandparents. Immediately, it was envisioned as a nightstand --with framed tile surfaces and subtle mid-century legs-- as a tribute to those who took a desert land and transformed it to a home.⁠⁠
—Alrasayel Nightstand Set :: كومدينة الرسايل