Having made a great expedition from Lisbon, Portugal to Boulder, PoBo Lifestyle co-founders Filipe and Joana have juxtaposed their newest venture with their previous manner of living within the name of their mid-century classic music consoles.
“The Boulder area reminds us of the cozy feeling that Europe gave us,” Joana says. “It's not a matter of the buildings or how Boulder looks as a city but more so the feeling that the people give us here. We are able to connect with people easily and are able to be open-minded around everyone—more than we felt that we could be anywhere else.”
With its European elegance and effortless look, it was only right that the two named their company ‘From Portugal to Boulder’ and created a brand that appeases the idea of making home décor attractive yet functional. Therein lies PoBo Lifestyle.
It took one moment of turning a hobby into a passion when Filipe bought a used music console from an estate sale, only to bring it home to reconfigure its sound components and give it some zest when it came to its appearance.
“I refinished the wood myself and figured out how to make the sound better. Once I saw that the end result was nothing short of amazing, I realized that it was a perfect combination for sound quality and design—which would be a great demand for music lovers,” Filipe says.
After a while, Joana and Filipe began to tune into how often their music console was complimented and appreciated.
“Our friends would come over and say 'Oh man, how cool is this? I want one,'" Filipe says. “Once this started happening two or three times, I thought to myself, 'Well, let’s see how this works.'" Filipe began to purchase old, used consoles that he knew he could turn around just as he did with his own. “Before I knew it, we started to have consoles down in the basement, one in the bathroom, one in the living room; pretty much consoles were all over the place. I knew that we could no longer keep these all to ourselves.”
Having seen the demand for their newly-created products, the hobby of refurbishing these consoles became meshed with another hobby of Filipe’s.
“Till this day, he will pour himself a scotch, go to the garage, and put music on while working on the consoles,” Joana says. “It has become a way for us to have an activity that is therapeutic but also allows us to be explorative. While doing this, we have discovered so much new music and even old music.”
While the focus of the brand originated with the intent to feed into the demand of having an attractive music piece that can double as decorative furniture, Filipe and Joana felt as if they could lean into the ‘lifestyle’ aspect a little bit more. They started creating playlists of their newly-discovered songs, and they'd give these playlists to clients or send them as a gift along with the new music consoles in the form of vinyl records.
PoBo Lifestyle has also had an effect on those who stumble upon it, acting as a personal haven for open-minded and curious music enthusiasts. Consoles can be found at Paradise Found Records & Music on Pearl St., and at the PoBo Lifestyle showroom.
In addition to music exploration, Joana and Filipe have found themselves able to explore different cities and sub-cultures. Not limiting their search for used consoles to local estate sales and online marketplaces, they often travel to collect these one-of-a-kind pieces.
“We’ll search for consoles anywhere from the East Coast, to the Mid-West, to Central America,” Joana says.
Inspired by their pastime for traveling, the names of each console are attributed to a specific moment or piece of architecture that the couple enjoyably experienced during their time away from home. “For example, the speakers on the ‘Seattle’ console remind us of the Space Needle,” she says.
Being that PoBo Lifestyle consoles can range from 60 to 70 years in age, customers and simple admirers are able to travel back in time while listening to music on these vintage pieces.
“If you think about it in the terms of society’s evolution, these consoles are coming from the time of Post-World War,” Joana says. “Yes, you are looking at something that is aged, but it is something that you’re still able to connect your Spotify playlist to. As opposed to your typical console or decorative furniture piece, where you have to adjust to the DNA of that piece, with our consoles it maintains the same characteristic of being a bygone, but it is made to fit into today’s society’s standards and needs.”
