It all started
with a basket.
I moved to the UAE in 2019, newly married and carrying a lot of hope. I had just left my corporate job in India, and I was ready to build a new life, a new career, and a home that felt truly mine.
But life rarely goes exactly as planned.
Within months, the world shut down. The job market became closed doors and silent inboxes. Even as things slowly returned to normal, I tried different paths, but nothing really worked out. In 2022, I moved to Dubai hoping for a fresh start, but things didn't fall into place as I had hoped. Through all of it, there was a dream I carried quietly, one I barely said out loud. To build something of my own. Something I truly loved and believed in. Something with a purpose beyond a paycheck, that could genuinely help others too. A dream I had almost convinced myself would never happen for me.
It was around this time that I started looking for something simple: a natural woven basket to use as a planter. I searched everywhere. The beautiful pieces I found in established stores were completely unaffordable, and the affordable ones were mass-produced plastic.
Then, one evening at Global Village, I spotted it. A vendor was using a beautiful natural woven basket just to store his own things. It wasn't for sale. But I liked it so much that I asked him for it. He smiled, emptied it out, and sold it to me for 40 AED.
That basket sat in my living room for weeks. Every time I looked at it, I felt a quiet sense of calm. It brought a piece of nature indoors. And then one day, looking at that basket, something clicked:
"Why is this so hard to find?
Why should a warm, mindful, natural home be a luxury?"
That was the seed. And then came the hardest season of my life.
What followed wasn't just exhaustion from the pandemic or the years of searching. There were deeper personal battles... health struggles, anxiety that showed up uninvited, weeks without proper sleep, days that felt impossible to get through. I hit what I can only describe as rock bottom. Mentally, physically, in every way. And it was right there... at the very bottom, that I finally did the thing I had quietly dreamed of for years.
ELA was built in those hours. Not dramatically. Just one hour at a time...sometimes that was all I had, and on those days, that was enough. Researching suppliers. Ordering samples.
Building ELA became my way through. A healing path, I believe, placed in front of me at exactly the right moment.
"Beautiful homes don't need more things. They need the right things."
Across different languages, Ela means leaf and earth - reflecting life, nature, and quiet growth. Building this brand has been my own quiet growth.
Today, ELA is a collection of thoughtfully curated, handmade pieces for real, lived-in homes. We are not a perfect brand... we are an honest one, always moving in the right direction. We source in small batches, embracing the beautiful imperfections of natural materials like rattan, water hyacinth, and seagrass.
One thing has never changed: if a product is not something I would use in my own home, it will not be sold here.
Welcome to ELA. I'm so glad you're here.
Seba Mary Thomas
Founder, ELA – The Eco Store
Eco-Friendly
Timeless
Thoughtfully Curated
Handmade
A brand that wastes nothing. A brand that hides nothing. A brand that believes beautiful, natural pieces should be accessible to everyone even if they're not perfect. Especially if they're not perfect.
That's who ELA is. That's why we're here.