Our Story

Arnie.M. A story about families.

Angela and I knew that starting a family was not going to be easy. Going through IVF is a rollercoaster, one that sends you through the wringer of worry, raised hopes and emotionally draining disappointments.

But mostly down to Angela’s bravery and determination, what sometimes seemed impossible eventually happened. Specifically, little Arnie Alfred Maurer happened in 2018 – an inspirational event obviously, but in ways we didn’t quite get at that amazing moment.

Rewind a few months. Like all parents-to-be, we got totally into preparing for our hoped-for happy event, despite the uncertainties of our situation, or maybe because of them.

The challenge was around space, because our small house also has to function as my studio. If you make a living from home, you’ll know that balancing domestic stuff with work demands can be a bit of a headache.

Life and work need to be in balance, and we couldn’t really figure how to sort this given our limited space issue. But Angela and I’s discussions plus quite a bit of research began to flag a solution. Conclusion: maybe it was time for us to go into the carpentry business.

And I’m the creative, right? Couldn’t I use my brand design and strategizing skills to come up with a practical answer?

So with the help of friends and contacts in the creative and craft industries in and around Manchester, my design ideas were skilfully translated into a for-real form – a workspace that worked practically and aesthetically in our small space.

Clearly, little Arnie M’s arrival changed our lives in many brilliant ways, giving us total joy, along with the learning curve that sweeps you up as new parents. But in addition to so many new things to get our heads around (including sleep deprivation), we began to see that my workspace was really helping. Friends and family who saw it liked the look, they were impressed by how a complete ‘office’ could be contained in one piece of domestic furniture. Well, for a couple of minutes anyway, before Arnie obviously stole the show on every visit.

That’s what led us to start out on this adventure. 18 months of development and tweaking have followed, refining details, improving, simplifying, taking advice, adding more flexibility. Most importantly, we’ve got to know an amazing network of skilled people; it feels a lot like the three of us are now also part of a wider, very supportive family here in Manchester.

And the ‘workspace’ now has a proper name: no prizes for guessing it’s Arnie.M. This particular Arnie has some clearly defined ambitions:

We want to carefully grow the Arnie.M family for everyone’s benefit, it’s not about making shedloads of money for ourselves through a vast global corporation.
We will support our small but talented collective in doing what they do best – handcrafting with pride and attention to detail.
We will work for environmental sustainability always – in materials, packaging, making only what we need, avoiding waste and by keeping production local.
We will ensure our product is built to last and versatile. The idea is, buy it once and it will flex to your needs for the rest of your working life.
We want our boy Arnie to benefit from the work he’s inspired. That’s obviously about financially supporting our family, but more to do with building a sustainable business that’s focused on doing the right thing.

We hope in future that our Arnie will be proud of the way we and our friends have gone about doing this. And if you choose an Arnie.M modular workspace, we hope it brings you good things for years to come.

Matt, Angela & Arnie.

Arnie.M
Conceived & crafted in Manchester.