The Bevel

Sara Hayat

Sara Hayat is the founder of Sara Hayat Designs, a modern and artful furniture brand with a signature perspective on shape and luxury material. The Hayat Family has been rooted in fine furniture making since the 1870’s, when Sara’s great-grandfather began manufacturing furniture in Gujrat (Pre-Partition India). Driven by their entrepreneurial passion and skill, M. Hayat & Bros were quickly the leading furniture crafters in the country known for making exquisite, high quality antique reproductions. Since, they have furnished spaces for royals, presidents, prestigious hotels and esteemed clients throughout the world including King George V and President John F. Kennedy, whose famed M. Hayat & Bros. rocking chair from the Kennedy White House was recently sold for $89,600 at Julien’s Auction. Sara was born and raised in Pakistan. Although she was surrounded by artisans, math was more to her liking. Sara attended University of Minnesota where she studied Economics, homing in on what drives human behavior and how people make decisions in both unpredictable and calculable circumstances. Approaching math from a psychological perspective, Sara focused on Options and Derivatives which afforded her the chance to dive deeper into probabilistic thinking in decision making. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2013 with a degree in Applied Economics, Sara began a successful career in finance, trading futures and crypto currency. However, the impact of her heritage and her love of design stayed with her. Like many, spending more time at home during the pandemic emphasized to her the importance of space. She began remembering time spent at her grandfather’s factory learning how each detail can shift an experience. As Sara ventures out with her namesake company, she recognizes she is standing on the shoulders of giants but is poised to present her own vision of craftsmanship and the place of furniture in our lives.