Miriam & Stephen's Hall Table

Miriam & Stephen's Hall Table was made in increasingly rare solid English Walnut, stocks of which I've kept seasoned in my workshop for a number of years.  The table, which contains two traditionally dovetailed drawers with close-fitting curving fronts and Cedar of Lebanon bottoms, features in the hallway of my clients' spacious family home.  My brief was to bring together ideas of subtle organic assymetry within an elegant form, and I was really excited by this design as, after many pages of exploratory sketches, I finally drew it out complete.

Miriam & Stephen’s Dining Furniture

The silk upholstery covering Miriam & Stephen’s twelve Dining Chairs was sourced from Portugal by their interior designers - who had approached me to design and make unique furniture for their clients.  French oak was chosen for the chairs and the 3m (10ft) long Dining Table (above) with its flowing form and curved bevelled edges.   Miriam and Stephen were intrigued by the idea of a "conversation between the rectilinear and the curved" - a notion which informs much of my design thinking and which I have developed in various ways over a number of other recent pieces.

Pequod Dining Table

Although the clear majority of all my furniture is designed to particular client commissions, at times extraordinary ideas come through general experimental sketching. The Pequod dining table, made as a prototype in European oak, is one such recent idea which is exciting enough to justify making immediately. Designed to seat 8-10 persons and large enough to comfortably fit most dining spaces, the subtly asymmetrical curves combine with a non-rectangular plan to give an engaging and dynamic – yet highly practical – form. This concept is made to order in a wide range of timbers, and indeed can be scaled up or down to suit particular client requirements.

Lovelock Sideboard

The Lovelock Sideboard, in solid American Black Walnut and over two metres long, was designed as a feature piece for the spacious living room of a Georgian rectory in Hampshire.  Inspiration for this innovative design came both from the meandering landscape of the surrounding grounds and also from thinking about the balances and flows of nature.

Alex & Martin's Dining Furniture

Designed for the large kitchen-dining room of a mansion-flat in London, the table extends from 4ft to 6ft to 8ft.  It is the chairs however which really give the dining-set its funkiness! Their open-backed structure and unusual inner leg curves combine strikingly with Alex's own choice of brightly-coloured Scottish leather upholstery.  As with all my chair designs, I try to never sacrifice comfort and proper support to style - I'll work to find another way to innovate.

Ivor's Desk

Ivor's Desk, in European oak was designed for the home-office of my client's newly-constructed minimalist house overlooking the ocean in Cape Town. The design was commissioned and approved at a distance of thousands of miles: my client sent me the architect's drawings for the house and I sent him the drawing for the desk. Although my inspiration for these irregular but ultimately balanced curves comes from my interest in the dynamic asymmetries of nature (explored in different proportions in Miriam's hall table, another recent piece), in my mind's eye I can perfectly imagine this desk, with its three curving flush-fronted drawers, in the bright blue-white of a Cape summer, reflecting the forms of the ocean beyond and the mountain contours behind.

Casablanca Cabinet

In first sketching out the Casablanca Cabinet I had in mind the presence and considered functionality of classical Chinese cabinetwork but I also wanted a contemporary piece with an almost minimalist aesthetic.  The panels (and internal shelves on hand-made adjustable-height brass pegs) are veneered in Ripple Sycamore, the legs and rails are of Black Walnut, and the finish is carefully built up with layers of traditional clear shellac, with a final beeswax polish.

Gaia Console Table

The Gaia Console Table was the outcome of a brief to develop the earlier Lovelock Console into a more compact - and slightly more stylised form for a new client.  I had wanted for ages to develop the original concept into a new piece altogether, but it took both a new client and the acquisition at about the same time of a whole tree's worth of the most beautiful 3" thick air dried English Walnut to bring this form into being.   It was, in the event, the natural curving bend in the length of the boards which suddenly provided the inspiration! Rather than the usual process of searching through multi-storey stacks of timber in my local yard for boards to fit a design, in this unusual case the design was directly informed by the timber sitting right inside my workshop.

Humby Desk

The Humby Desk was first designed to a two-adjective brief - "languid but elegant" - from an interior designer client, whose project was a Georgian house near Bath full of tactile contemporary textiles and rich colours.  Made in English Oak and finished with Danish oil and beeswax, the desk has three drawers each with Cedar of Lebanon drawer-bottoms.

Butterfly Chair

Constructed using traditional fine chairmaking techniques and laminated and shaped curved parts, the natural contemporary form of the Butterfly Chair was designed to provide both enduring comfort and excellent lumber support.  This example is of the prototype made in English Cherry and upholstered with a brushed leather covering.  The chair is made-to-order in a choice of timber and upholstery covering.

Helen's Writing Desk

Helen's Writing Desk was made for a writer of children's fiction.  Her wish was for a small writing surface without drawers, but with a comfortable, curved and open form for long hours spent writing.  I don't know if it was because Helen was pregnant at the time I sketched out the design, but I can see now how I allowed plenty of curve in the middle! Made in English walnut and finished with an oil and wax polish.

David & Gill's Desk

The shape of the top was initially sketched out to comfortably fit into a bay window of my clients' study overlooking a walled garden.  Its curved shape however quickly led on to the whole-form evolution of this unique, very sculptural design.  The legs are built up with numerous laminations of shaped oak, lipped in ebony and laid with figured oak veneer, while the top surface is veneered in burr oak.  There is a single solid oak drawer slung on hidden runners underside of the top.

Johanna's Table & Mirror

Not only did Johanna & Vicky give me excellent coffee and cake on my various site visits, but shortly after their commission was delivered I received a card from them in the post:
"Just to let you know how very much we are enjoying our hall table and mirror.   Every time we see it, it is a surprise and delight.  It also looks totally as if it belongs and owns the space.  It is really perfect.  Thank you so much! Johanna & Vicky"

Chantal's Console

I first visited Chantal and Hugh in their Oxfordshire village home to discuss making a cabinet for CDs.  But I lost myself that commission by suggesting they might instead employ a joiner to install painted shelves in an available alcove! The universe, however, has a wonderful way of balancing things and I was instead commissioned to design and make this elegant Black Walnut serving console for their dining-room.

Tamara's Dressing Suite

Made in English Walnut with a Burr Walnut veneered top, the suite was designed and made for an American client for her Docklands warehouse apartment. Without any constraints, aside from the overall dimensions to fit a particular space, I was given carte blanche by Tamara to come up with whatever design inspired me. As often occurs, I progressed two very different concepts and showed the drawings at our subsequent meeting. "We love them both, make whichever one interests you the most" was their response.

Borges Coffee Table

Beautifully proportioned (by basing the format of the top on the Golden Ratio of 2:3), this coffee table explores the play between the ‘minimalist and the expressive’ or ‘the rectilinear and the curved’ or the ‘machined and the natural.’ It is made to order including toughened glass, and works well in Black Walnut or European Oak, depending on the colour and tone of the flooring.  (The original prototype is used as our own coffee-table, and I’ve often found myself in our living room listening to Bach or Keith Jarrett and suddenly seeing something fresh and engaging in it…)