Vancouver chefs cook up success with Odd One Out's nostalgic home decor

Vancouver entrepreneur and chef Ryan Murphy loves to stay inspired by watching some of his favourite childhood shows.

“I’ve always loved cartoons and anime and continue to consume them regularly,” Murphy told Daily Hive. “They’re a great reprieve from the pressures of adult life and I think they help me maintain my creative headspace.

“I greatly appreciate different animation styles. There’s a quality to animation that helps engage that wonderment you felt when you were younger.”

That creativity shines through in Murphy’s work with Odd One Out Design, a home decor company he founded with friend and fellow chef Mike Robbins.

 

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Odd One Out draws upon the founders’ childhood nostalgia and interests in sports, culture and style to inspire its products.

“We essentially have two product lines that can be categorized as mini hoops and castings,” explained Murphy. “The mini hoops are a blank canvas which we mould and shape with our broad interests in things like architecture, contemporary furniture, sneaker culture and anime to name a few.

“The castings take existing products and items that we love and reimagine them into something as close to an exact replica as we can make it while introducing a new element of utility and design. The goal is always to make something that we hope will elicit a visceral, positive emotional response.”

Odd One Out/Submitted

The journey of Odd One Out’s creation is as interesting as their product designs. Murphy trained as a chef all over the world and was running his restaurant when he discovered woodworking as a hobby.

“When I became a chef, I took it upon myself to maintain the business’ infrastructure in a handyman capacity. That segued into building new furniture and designing décor for the restaurant.

“A few years into having achieved my dream of being a chef, I became disenchanted with the day-to-day operational responsibilities of the job. Coming out of my cloistered culinary world, I discovered a plethora of creative avenues and disciplines I could explore. I eventually decided to leave cooking to become self-employed in furniture making.”

Ryan Murphy, co-founder of Odd One Out/Submitted

Murphy would join forces with business partner and long-time friend Mike Robbins, the chef-owner of AnnaLena.

“Mike is a rare talent in the cheffing world,” praised Murphy. “He is not only an extremely talented cook with an innately decisive palate, but he also has a high aptitude for creativity, design, and curation that he applies to all aspects of his restaurants.”

In 2019, Robbins teamed up with Reigning Champ for a collaboration dinner in the theme of a sports arena. He brought in Murphy to work with him to create service ware and one-off décor for the dinner series, including casting a deflated basketball as a service vessel.

Odd One Out/Submitted

“That idea would become the Basketbowl, one of our flagship products today. Drawing inspiration from the Basketbowl and its novel and playful design, we developed other product ideas. We discovered we could create a business in the home décor space that was unique to our tastes and interests while capturing the attention of like-minded people.”

Odd One Out’s eye-catching home decor includes a Sriracha pencil holder, a Game Boy planter, and stylish mini hoops. Items are offered directly to customers from their website and are shipped within Canada and the US.

The company also makes custom furniture pieces and products for commercial and private clients.

Odd One Out/Submitted

“We make all our products ourselves, with nearly every component being produced in-house,” explained Murphy. “We take a lot of pride in offering high-quality products made with high-quality materials.

“The time to complete a product may range from just a few days for a casting to a week or more for some of our hoops. We do small runs of each product at a time, or in the case of many of our hoops, they are made to order.”

Murphy shared that Odd One Out is working on releasing new products this year and are excited to tackle any new requests that come their way.

Odd One Out/Submitted

“There is a lot I enjoy about getting to work for Odd One Out. Like most small (or, in our case, micro) business owners, I have to wear a lot of hats. I’m the designer, the builder, the marketer, the shipping department, etc. The diversity of what I do keeps it fresh or relentless, depending on your point of view.

“I love creating things from some of my most passionate interests. Being inspired is an exciting feeling, and putting your ideas and creations out into the world is very satisfying.

For more information about Odd One Out, visit its website.