Nestled between the historic quarter and the burgeoning art districts of Beirut stands the unassuming workshop of Nada Debs. Here, under the warm glow of industrial lamps, master craftswomen in white aprons gently lay mother-of-pearl tesserae onto ebony wood panels, each minute sliver poised to become part of a larger tapestry. It was in this sanctum of silence and focus—far removed from the bustle of Milan Design Week or the glare of Instagram’s global stage—that Debs first understood her true calling: to fuse ancient Eastern crafts with clean, contemporary forms.
Born in Lebanon in 1978 to a family steeped in both Japanese and Levantine traditions, Debs spent her childhood summers in Tokyo, absorbing the rigour of Japanese design pedagogy and the Japanese reverence for material honesty. Winters were spent in Beirut, where centuries-old wood-inlay ateliers still thrived amid the city’s rhythmic pulse. After earning a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2000—where she was drawn equally to mid-century modern chairs and the scintillating patterns of mother-of-pearl marquetry—Debs returned to Beirut with dual purpose: preserve vanishing crafts and reinvent them for a global audience.
Her breakthrough came in 2006 with the Arabesque Sofa, a sinuous silhouette upholstered in wool boucle, its wooden frame intricately inlaid with mother-of-pearl in geometric motifs. At first glance, the sofa appeared to float above the ground, its legs invisible—a deliberate illusion crafted by Debs to evoke the hovering grace of flying carpets in Levantine folklore. Collectors hailed it as a “masterful dialogue between East and West,” and galleries in London and Dubai clamoured to exhibit the piece. Yet for Debs, the Arabesque Sofa was more than a design triumph: it was a statement that heritage crafts could find new life in modern contexts.
Central to Debs’s practice is her “handmade, heartmade” philosophy. Unlike mass-manufactured Western furniture that hides its origins, every Debs piece bears the signature of its artisan. At her Beirut atelier—a converted tobacco warehouse—she employs over 30 craftspeople trained in traditional Lebanese marquetry, shell inlay, and Japanese urushi lacquer techniques. Apprenticeship programs, funded in part by Debs’s own grants, ensure that these skills are passed down rather than lost to the churn of cheaper imports. She frequently brings in Japanese lacquer masters to guide local artisans, forging cross-cultural exchanges that enrich both traditions.
In 2012, Debs unveiled “Resonance,” a series of side tables marrying resin casting with mother-of-pearl inlay. Each table’s resin top captures a single inlay fragment suspended within, its delicate hues refracting light like a gem, while the wooden base—crafted from sustainably harvested Lebanese cedar—anchors the ethereal shimmer to the earth. “I wanted to capture a moment of beauty in time,” Debs explains. “The inlay, once part of a larger pattern, now floats freely, reminding us that tradition can be recontextualized without losing its soul.” Critics at Milan Design Week praised Resonance for its “poetic minimalism” and Debs’s “rare gift for storytelling through material.”
That same year, Debs’s C-Resin Side Table was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its permanent collection, a milestone that underscored her role in redefining contemporary craft. The piece’s translucent resin surface, imbued with mother-of-pearl shards, sat alongside centuries-old Japanese lacquerware—an incongruous pairing that revealed the continuity of artisan ingenuity across eras and regions. For Debs, the acquisition validated her conviction that craft could transcend cultural boundaries and speak to universal human experiences.
Beyond furniture, Debs has applied her ethos to large-scale installations. In 2018, she collaborated with the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., on “Echoes of Earth and Sea,” a site-specific installation of suspended mother-of-pearl panels and mirrored steel frames. Visitors walking beneath the cascading panels saw sunlight fractured into iridescent ribbons—a sensory evocation of Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast melded with the precise geometry of contemporary art. The installation traveled to the UCCA Edge in Shanghai in 2025, sparking local dialogues on material sustainability and cross-cultural craft revivals.
While her work commands international acclaim, Debs remains deeply invested in her hometown. In 2020, amid Lebanon’s economic collapse and the devastation of Beirut’s port explosion, she launched the Craft Resilience Initiative. Partnering with NGOs and municipal authorities, the program provided emergency funding and workspace to artisans whose workshops were destroyed. Debs personally oversaw the restoration of damaged tools, supplied materials, and organized pop-up markets that brought newly made wares to a global clientele. “Craft is the soft infrastructure of culture,” she noted. “When we rebuild workshops, we rebuild communities.”
Her commitment to social impact extends to mentorship. Debs established the Arab Design Collective, an annual scholarship that sends emerging Levantine designers to residency programs in Europe and Japan. Past fellows have gone on to launch sustainable interior brands in Amman and Tokyo, effectively exporting Debs’s fusion philosophy globally. At her Beirut studio, she holds monthly “Design Dialogues”—open forums where local students present projects and receive feedback from Debs and visiting experts. These sessions have spawned collaborations on eco-friendly product lines and community-driven urban furniture projects for public parks.
Recognition of Debs’s contributions has been widespread. In 2019, she received the Red Dot: Best of the Best award for her Seamless Collection of cabinets, whose concealed hinges and uninterrupted surfaces echo minimalist principles while preserving intricate inlay interiors. Later that year, *Wallpaper magazine named her Designer of the Year for the Middle East, praising her blend of cultural stewardship and contemporary relevance. Forbes Middle East has repeatedly featured her among the “Most Influential Women in Design,” highlighting her role as a bridge between tradition and innovation.
Looking ahead, Debs is exploring biomaterial experiments—infusing natural resins with renewable shell byproducts and incorporating 3D-printed ceramic inlays that mimic traditional patterns. She is also collaborating with architects on a community arts pavilion in Tripoli, Lebanon, where local artisans will craft both structural elements and embedded artworks, turning the building itself into a living gallery of regional craft. Through these ventures, she seeks to demonstrate that sustainable design and cultural heritage can coalesce in structures that serve both aesthetic and social functions.
For Nada Debs, design is never an end in itself but always a conduit for dialogue—between past and present, individual and community, craftsperson and user. Her creations, whether a gleaming side table or a towering installation, invite us to consider where our material cultures originate and where they might yet lead. In her words: “When you preserve a craft, you preserve a way of seeing the world.” And as long as her workshop’s lamps burn bright in Beirut, that way of seeing will continue to illuminate new paths for East and West alike.
