Making handcrafted wood furniture work in your interior #2

 
EDGE

Who loves Grand Designs?

Much to my wife Lisa’s disgust (she doesn’t love it very much..!) I must have watched, and loved, every episode since Series 1 kicked off back in 1999. You gotta love Kevin McCloud!

Fast-forward to the sixth episode of the 2018 series, who watched Concrete House, pics above and below?

Concrete House was designed to nestle within its tree-lined site, evoking a monolithic mass that has been pushed up from the earth. To achieve this, it was crafted almost entirely from concrete, with a distinctive stepped form that references the South Downs ridgeline over which the house looks.

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Not everyone’s cup of tea I’m sure, but I really appreciate this build for the bravery and vision of the couple that commissioned it to be built from cutting-edge concrete technologies that help to minimise the carbon footprint of the home, while also reducing construction time and costs.

In my recent post Making handcrafted wood furniture work in your interior I showed an example of how the natural character of wood furniture benefits from being placed in a contrasting neutral environment. Light, but more importantly, contrasting walls and flooring will provide a decorative backdrop that works by not competing and allowing the beauty of wood to take the limelight.

 Back to some pics (below) captured inside Concrete House since its completion in 2018. We see this contrast thing working well again with wood furniture in what could be described as the unexpectedly warm calming interiors given that concrete is exposed throughout the home which many would view as cold and clinical.

Note how the concrete environment is warmed by planting, wooden furnishings and through the use of some bright artwork. This includes in the kitchen area, which marries mid-century modern furniture and British plum-wood joinery, paying homage to the site's history as a plum orchard in the early 1900s.

The neutral tone of the lightly textured grey concrete walls and flooring provides the perfect backdrop for the warmth of the rich wood furnishings to become a focal point – two contrasting materials that complement each other really well.

What do you think? Please let us know by commenting below. 

Please note, the wood furnishings shown here were not supplied by Teer & Co, however, working with our new 3D Wall Panels and exemplary Collection of made-to-order timber and soft furnishings, we can help you create your own interpretation of this distinctive interior.       

 Source:
Imagery from Dezeen story ‘Tarry + Perry captures monastic qualities of concrete house in East Sussex’ by Lizzie Crook (22.1.2021).

The architect behind Concrete House, Raw Architecture Workshop, was a London studio founded by Graeme Laughlan and David Mulligan in 2011, which closed its doors in 2019.