Kitchen of the Week: A Material-Led Celebration of British Wood

The homeowners of this handmade kitchen liken the design course of to a visit to the farmers’ market. They set off with no preconceptions of what they may obtain. As a substitute, they had been led by supplies. In the identical manner that good-quality, available components usually make for the tastiest dishes, by working with available, responsibly sourced British supplies, they’ve crafted a kitchen from a cloth palette that sits collectively as naturally as a seasonal, regionally sourced plate of just-picked components.

We take a tour:

That is the kitchen of the British couple, Seb and Brogan Cox. Seb is an award-winning regenerative designer, craftsman and environmentalist working with UK woodlands; his associate, Brogan, is the inventive director of Seb’s eponymous model. The couple moved into their Victorian terrace within the coastal city of Margate in 2020, taking over an unloved rental that had been badly refurbished over a decade in the past.

As with most terraces, the floorplan was lengthy and slim. “After we purchased the home, the kitchen was sort of cramped up in a single nook of the room,” explains Brogan. The proportions weren’t overly beneficiant, and a utility and out of doors rest room had been tacked on as an afterthought through the Nineteen Fifties (extra on this later …). The couple duly spent their lockdown days crafting a kitchen for his or her younger household – a job that started by ripping up the linoleum.

Earlier than lengthy, Seb uncovered a large stone fireside within the nook of the room. Additional investigation revealed a shapely brick chimney stack. “We quickly realized there will need to have been one thing actually fascinating within the nook of the room,” remembers Brogan. “It meant we might have a wooden burning range within the kitchen, which felt actually thrilling to us,” Seb provides. “Clearly, with the workshop, we now have a big provide of gasoline and – with the rising value of power – we really feel extremely grateful that we’re capable of have three wooden burners in the home.”

The couple bought an Esse range, that has grow to be the center of their kitchen. “As a lot as potential, we’ve tried to re-celebrate the Victorian components of the home, which had been so sterilized by the earlier renovation. And there’s one thing so good about placing a chunk of forged iron again on that fireside.”

The place of the wooden burner “pushed the whole lot down the room,” explains Seb, who was eager to make sure the kitchen cabinetry “didn’t impose itself on the house.” Impressed by the straightforward form and performance of Victorian washstands, the pair designed a clear and easy row of cupboards with a central sink, stone countertop, white splashback and row of shaker pegs above. Though it’s screwed to the wall, it has the texture of a freestanding piece.

The run of cabinets had been crafted by Seb in his basement workshop from tiger oak. “We regularly attempt to work with neglected, unloved and undervalued supplies akin to tiger oak,” he explains. “Tiger oak will not be a species: it’s a bathroom commonplace oak tree that has been contaminated with beefsteak fungus. The tree’s immune response to the fungal assault produces this superb coloration, which makes it appear to be an unique or tropical wooden.”

He continues: “The entire kitchen is a celebration of British hardwoods which have come from sustainably managed forests. We wished to have the ability to exhibit that we actually want to make use of this materials – that we don’t must go for homogenous, imported supplies, as a result of we now have this nice useful resource proper on our doorstep.”

Consistent with their materials strategy to wooden, the couple sourced a British stone countertop from a quarry in Yorkshire. They commissioned the stone mason, James Elliott, to hone a closely fossilized piece of British limestone known as Swaledale. (By the way, it was sourced from the identical quarry because the stone used to create Richard III’s tomb in 2015.) “At one finish, the stone has this orange streaking by means of it,” Brogan factors out. “It’s not constant in any respect, and a few folks may reject it as imperfect. For us, that actually doesn’t matter in any respect: the worth comes by means of the which means.”

Above the counter, Brogan has sourced “the proper white tile” from the Balineum handmade assortment. The tiles differ in form and dimension and have been organized in brickwork sample and a basketweave. “They’re so neat and clear, with out wanting mass-produced,” she explains. “Plus they’ve received this totally superb, hand-cast, refractive high quality.” The tiles are framed with a strong oak shaker peg rail that stretches the size of the wall and supplies a show space for the couple’s artwork and ceramic assortment.

The total-height pantry reverse is produced from strong British ash stained a vivid yellow. “At this second in time, ash timber are being felled left, proper and centre as a part of the mitigation towards ash-dieback,” Seb explains. “Ash is a kind of supplies that’s going to be plentiful over the subsequent few years earlier than turning into a lot scarcer, so we’re making a degree of actually celebrating it in the mean time.” The colour was impressed by Seb’s Barker assortment – a small group of brightly coloured items.

Subsequent to the window is the eating space (a part of the Bayleaf assortment) and a bespoke settle produced from reclaimed matchboard cladding that, in a earlier life, fashioned a part of an exhibition stand at Maison & Objet. “We had been possibly going to discover a reclaimed bench seat to go alongside the wall,” Brogan remembers. “After which we had a kind of pretty, uncommon evenings the place we received to sit down down with a drink and a meal and design one thing collectively. As a result of we had been having fun with the design course of a lot, the piece simply received greater and greater till it ended up turning into this L-shaped settle that hugs the window.”

“It’s additionally a very practical piece,” provides Seb. “The room is pretty slim at that time, so we would have liked a seat that allowed you to nonetheless sit comfortably on the desk. Additionally, it’s alongside a north-facing wall which might grow to be fairly chilly in winter. By extending the panelling to shoulder or head peak, it maintains a way of cosiness in that nook of the room.”

“That is the primary kitchen we’ve designed the place we’ve been the shoppers,” Brogan displays. “We couldn’t imagine that it got here collectively comparatively shortly and with such finesse. It felt actually achievable for us, while being easy and delightful.” The couple have been so impressed by the method – and the outcomes – they’ve given the kitchen a reputation (the Sawyer – a homage to the timber yard and the timber miller) and added it to their core providing: a modular kitchen produced from strong British wooden. “It’s been an actual lesson in inside design,” Seb concludes. “If in case you have the boldness to let your supplies lead you thru the design course of, you possibly can’t go unsuitable.”