We had a call a few months back from a lovely client who just moved into to an 300 year old cottage, desperate for furniture storage ideas. Classic Cotswold stoneworks and heavy structural timbers, but for all the charm, beams, character and period details. Not one wall was straight, true, plumb or level.
Along with this the client only really noticed after moving in, that every bedroom had a variety of sloping ceilings from the roof design that made it impossible to find standard furniture storage to fit within the room. After being extremely fed up of living with clothes rails and desperate to escape storage containers, they contacted us to help resolve their furniture challenge and lack of storage.
Wanting to achieve best use of storage, but sympathetic to the house and the clients taste. We opted for European Oak finish in a clear Danish Oil and Wax.The master bedroom had a nasty furniture airing/wardrobe/cupboard, that the client hated. We removed this and rebuilt furniture within the same floor area a new triple bay of wardrobes and low shoe storage.
Within the same room the cotswold stone chimney breast was a magnificent feature, but it lacked any real use other than a stone wall feature. Previous to this project we had made a king size bed very much utilising the natural form of the timber grain.
With this design still fresh in my mind and after a length template process and design discussion. We came up with a simple mantel shelf that would link to the newly built wardrobes, but have the natural shape of the timber to compliment the beams and cotswold stone.
For a simple shelf it took quite an amount of careful templates, scribing and fitting. But the client loved the natural detail and as a little bonus we built in a secret compartment for keys and valuable items. The beautiful detail of the natural stone shape and rustic surface, made scribing the shelf back edge for a neat fit very challenging.
We have been working with the client now for some 12 months, which is great for business, but a real compliment that they love our work and want more as they discover a new challenging room.