Gulf couple makes bed out of telephone books

Couple turns telephone directories into king-size bed A green-conscious couple has come up with an unlikely invention - they have turned hundreds of Yellow Pages into a comfortable bed. Gundeep Singh, director of the green superstore Change Initiative, and his wife Shilpi designed the custom king-size bed out of 250 phone directories glued together and topped with a comfortable organic mattress.
The Yellow Pages were sliced into halves to form the bed frame. It is on display at their Shaikh Zayed Road showroom, along with an array of handcrafted recycled products for eco-conscious residents. The bed is showcased alongside furniture which comes with a 30-year warranty.
The showroom doubles as a discovery centre and is divided into various sections, with green furniture and water-saving taps.
A VW Scirocco and portable bicycles can be seen in the mobility section. “What we have here is a physical demonstration. And every product we’re showcasing is a product we tried ourselves and made sure works,” said Singh.
The couple said they encourage people to take the Metro and then ride portable bicycles home instead of driving a car.
“If you have to have a car, you can drive a sustainable car like the Scirocco, it’s one of the most fuel-efficient cars in the market today,” he said. Singh left the corporate scene four years ago to engage in green technology business. First, he looked into buying clean tech companies but found none of them did it right.
Alternative solutions
For him, the solution was simple, starting with replacing what he termed as “dysfunctional” supply chains. “To do that, you need to demonstrate physically all the alternative solutions available to replace unsustainable practices,” said the Indian businessman.
The Singhs believed that if people knew greener alternatives were available, they would force the manufacturers to become more responsible and learn to consume responsibly with time.
“People should not wait for the world to change. They should introduce change instead.”
The store has a section for domestic and office furniture from Vitra, offering warranties up to the year 2042.
“This brand has designs that range from 1920 to 1980 so the designs are timeless. They last forever – you can pass them down to your children, and them to theirs and so on. The value comes in terms of design and longevity, which is rare,” said Singh.
But is this eco-friendly stuff worth the price?
“It’s affordable because it lasts, for that reason people should want to buy our furniture – it’s quality, organic, and less harmful to your children, so why not buy it?” said Singh.
The Singhs say they practise what they preach. “My kids – ages five and eight – are very much aware and they know when to stop the water while brushing their teeth. They read books on the iPad, my car is a hybrid, 80 per cent of our home is solar-powered and lead-free,” said Singh.
Shilpi, who has also created a chandelier from the phone directories and a beautiful sculpture that adorns the showroom entrance, waxes philosophical in describing her sculpture that shows a man with its head partly cut off, called “The Caged Evolution of Man”. “This work defines the evolution of man. We’re trying to describe that the butterflies are synonymous with human evolution. It signifies that we’re losing our direction, we need to get a sense of what we’re doing,” she said.
Singh said they are unfazed by the ups and downs of running a green business.
“My journey is to make change happen and see how much impact we can make. I don’t know the answer, to be very frank. But we do not intend to give up quickly.”