The proprietors of this handmade kitchen area liken the design and style procedure to a journey to the farmers’ sector. They established off with no preconceptions of what they could possibly accomplish. Alternatively, they have been led by products. In the similar way that superior-quality, readily readily available ingredients normally make for the tastiest dishes, by working with easily offered, responsibly sourced British resources, they have crafted a kitchen from a substance palette that sits with each other as by natural means as a seasonal, locally sourced plate of just-picked substances.
We acquire a tour:
This is the kitchen area of the British few, Seb and Brogan Cox. Seb is an award-winning regenerative designer, craftsman and environmentalist doing the job with British isles woodlands his associate, Brogan, is the imaginative director of Seb’s eponymous model. The pair moved into their Victorian terrace in the coastal city of Margate in 2020, taking on an unloved rental that had been terribly refurbished more than a decade ago.
As with most terraces, the floorplan was extensive and slender. “When we acquired the property, the kitchen was variety of cramped up in just one corner of the room,” explains Brogan. The proportions weren’t extremely generous, and a utility and outside rest room had been tacked on as an afterthought through the 1950s (additional on this afterwards …). The pair duly expended their lockdown times crafting a kitchen area for their young family – a job that started by ripping up the linoleum.
Right before extended, Seb uncovered a giant stone fireplace in the corner of the area. Even more investigation exposed a shapely brick chimney stack. “We before long understood there ought to have been a thing actually interesting in the corner of the place,” recalls Brogan. “It intended we could have a wood burning stove in the kitchen, which felt seriously enjoyable to us,” Seb adds. “Obviously, with the workshop, we have a large offer of fuel and – with the growing cost of power – we sense extremely grateful that we’re in a position to have 3 wooden burners in the home.”
The few acquired an Esse stove, that has turn into the heart of their kitchen. “As considerably as doable, we’ve experimented with to re-celebrate the Victorian sections of the property, which experienced been so sterilized by the preceding renovation. And there’s some thing so great about putting a piece of solid iron again on that fireside.”
The situation of the wooden burner “pushed all the things down the area,” describes Seb, who was keen to make certain the kitchen area cabinetry “didn’t impose itself on the area.” Influenced by the uncomplicated shape and operation of Victorian washstands, the pair built a clean and very simple row of cupboards with a central sink, stone countertop, white splashback and row of shaker pegs earlier mentioned. While it is screwed to the wall, it has the experience of a freestanding piece.
The operate of cabinets have been crafted by Seb in his basement workshop from tiger oak. “We normally attempt to get the job done with forgotten, unloved and undervalued elements this kind of as tiger oak,” he points out. “Tiger oak is not a species: it’s a bog normal oak tree that has been contaminated with beefsteak fungus. The tree’s immune response to the fungal attack generates this remarkable coloration, which would make it look like an unique or tropical wood.”
He continues: “The complete kitchen is a celebration of British hardwoods that have appear from sustainably managed forests. We wished to be in a position to reveal that we definitely need to use this content – that we really do not require to go for homogenous, imported elements, simply because we have this wonderful source right on our doorstep.”
In keeping with their content tactic to wooden, the few sourced a British stone countertop from a quarry in Yorkshire. They commissioned the stone mason, James Elliott, to hone a heavily fossilized piece of British limestone known as Swaledale. (By the way, it was sourced from the identical quarry as the stone utilized to produce Richard III’s tomb in 2015.) “At a person close, the stone has this orange streaking via it,” Brogan factors out. “It’s not consistent at all, and some individuals may well reject it as imperfect. For us, that actually does not make a difference at all: the price arrives by way of the that means.”
Higher than the counter, Brogan has sourced “the excellent white tile” from the Balineum handmade assortment. The tiles vary in form and measurement and have been arranged in brickwork pattern and a basketweave. “They are so neat and clean, without the need of searching mass-produced,” she clarifies. “Plus they’ve received this certainly awesome, hand-solid, refractive quality.” The tiles are framed with a good oak shaker peg rail that stretches the size of the wall and offers a show spot for the couple’s artwork and ceramic assortment.
The whole-peak pantry opposite is built from strong British ash stained a dazzling yellow. “At this minute in time, ash trees are getting felled left, correct and centre as portion of the mitigation versus ash-dieback,” Seb explains. “Ash is a single of those components that is heading to be ample above the up coming couple of several years prior to turning out to be considerably scarcer, so we are creating a position of actually celebrating it at the moment.” The coloration was motivated by Seb’s Barker collection – a little team of brightly colored parts.
Subsequent to the window is the eating area (component of the Bayleaf selection) and a bespoke settle created from reclaimed matchboard cladding that, in a earlier lifestyle, shaped part of an exhibition stand at Maison & Objet. “We had been perhaps likely to locate a reclaimed bench seat to go alongside the wall,” Brogan remembers. “And then we experienced one of all those attractive, uncommon evenings in which we got to sit down with a consume and a food and style something with each other. For the reason that we ended up having fun with the style system so considerably, the piece just received more substantial and bigger until it ended up turning out to be this L-shaped settle that hugs the window.”
“It’s also a genuinely functional piece,” provides Seb. “The space is reasonably narrow at that point, so we needed a seat that allowed you to nevertheless sit easily at the table. Also, it is alongside a north-facing wall which can turn into really chilly in wintertime. By extending the panelling to shoulder or head peak, it maintains a perception of cosiness in that corner of the place.”
“This is the initially kitchen we have designed where we’ve been the shoppers,” Brogan reflects. “We couldn’t think that it came together reasonably immediately and with these types of finesse. It felt actually achievable for us, while getting uncomplicated and beautiful.” The pair have been so impressed by the procedure – and the effects – they have supplied the kitchen area a title (the Sawyer – a homage to the timber lawn and the timber miller) and added it to their core featuring: a modular kitchen area built from stable British wood. “It’s been a actual lesson in interior style and design,” Seb concludes. “If you have the assurance to let your components direct you by the layout method, you just cannot go wrong.”