The Tribune

A Bahamian-owned outdoor furniture store is expanding to its third location less than three years after opening its Sandyport outlet.

Oasis Furniture has extended its footprint to Eleuthera by collaborating with Governor's Harbour-based Bahama Hand Prints. The move came just months after Jennifer Treco joined Oasis as an in-house designer.

"When Alannah (van Onselen) and her husband, David, and their three children moved back to her home in The Bahamas in 2018 after ten years in David's native South Africa, they purchased Bahama Hand Prints. Alannah immediately threw herself into building on the legacy that had made the screen print fabric famous and recognisable around the world for more than half a century," said Brooke Phillips Pyfrom, Oasis' principal.

"We love her energy and drive, and where she taking the line, so when she approached us about opening a division of Oasis in her shop in Eleuthera, we felt truly honoured." Ms Pyfrom and Ms Treco agree the tie-up works for both businesses.

"Alannah produces the placemats and napkins, and we supply the napkin rings to tie it all together," says Ms Treco. "She produces the throw pillows and we supply a wicker daybed to showcase the pillows. We think of it as expanding our footprint with Bahama Hand Prints. Eleuthera is getting hotter by the minute, so we are really pleased to be in on the ground floor of this beautiful store."

Oasis in Eleuthera opened this month and carries home décor items sourced from around the world. They include candles and candle holders, throw pillows, rugs, lamps and some furniture.

"Bahama Hand Prints was created in 1966 by two women artists, both now deceased, Berta Sands and Helen Astarita," said Ms Pyfrom. "I grew up almost next door to Mrs Astarita and was always fascinated by her art work even as a young child.

"I felt privileged to know this incredible woman who could build equipment yet paint a delicate Easter egg so beautifully it should have been preserved as art. I just wish she could see us now helping Alannah carry on the business she and Mrs Sands created."

Bahama Hand Prints opened in Governor's Harbour in 2019, and is its third location. The company also has a store at The Island House in western New Providence, along with its plant and show room off Mackey Street where much of the original fabric printing machine designed by Mrs Astarita is still printing new and fresh designs.

Eleuthera is also Oasis' third location. Its original outdoor furniture showroom remains where Ms Pyfrom started out repaying a college debt to family, on East Shirley Street at Phillips Sailmakers & Awning Manufacturers.