AL NICHE

 

December 2, 2023

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If you’re reading this, you probably have loathed the sight of النيش for as long as you can remember.

It seems like a generational curse that only millennials have finally managed to break.
‎النيش is fundamentally a dense storage cabinet, often of a glass casing. It has been resented for its significantly large build.
And your animosity towards it has probably been contracted through your grandma’s defiance against putting its belongings- which often ranged from expensive china, to silver tableware- to use, or simply resorting to its disposal.

Personally, the only thing I didn’t appreciate about the gigantic body of polished wood was its tough drawers and just-on-the-verge-of-falling-apart rusty metal handles.
I tend to be a collector. I collect tomes, young-adult books, children books; seashells; pretty ceramic mugs; business cards; photo albums, you literally name it. I know you collect something too, something of meaning, of history, perhaps to consolidate your identity.

If you look around you, people nowadays are giving second-hand clothes a chance; thrifting is cool again. People write journal entries, just so that their grandchildren can read them one day.
And it got me thinking that, maybe, النيش is more a concept, less a bulky piece of furnishing.
It represented legacy, it kept the hand-me-downs-safe.
So what if النيش is refurbished, instead of simply forgotten?

Consider building your personalized version of النيش, where your grandma’s pretty plates, your mom’s handmade vases, your favorite books and pouches are on display.
It is personal. It is family. It will be vintage.
And it’s cool.
النيش is super cool.