New Year - The Manifesto

Well the break, such as it was, was brief but necessary and now refreshed, re-invigorated we're looking ahead to 12 months of plans, pro...

Well the break, such as it was, was brief but necessary and now refreshed, re-invigorated we're looking ahead to 12 months of plans, projects and portfolios.

First, for those who missed it, we did make a mid-Christmas break post where we showed an interesting project we were involved in and which took us away from our normal field of interiors.

But that's looking back and this post should (and will be) about looking forward so what's on the horizon:

Firstly we have an industrial switch install marathon coming up which was responsible for a shortened break and celebrating New Year by standing in front of various machines making parts.

Ready for an industrial switch install marathon

We're then going to be pushing the start button on the 13A 3pin socket cover project. We have an initial requirement for 5 of these some of which are going into the portfolio project and the rest into a customer project. We think we've solved an issue with retaining the actual cover in such a way that it can be easily removed for plugging and unplugging (the challenge being that we wanted to use neodymium magnets but aluminium is resolutely not magnetic)

This is shortly to become a reality x5

We have a second distressed copper splash back to install into the portfolio project which will then allow us to work on some prototype task lighting which echoes the design of the large ambient light fixture we created last year. This same task lighting will provide additional wall hanging storage - it's always interesting to look for multi-tasking options from a design originally conceived with a single purpose in mind

The casual mention of an in-floor wine chiller seems to have created some interested so we're off to special place to take a look at the portholes "in the flesh". We've sourced refrigeration modules already so that part of the technical challenge can be crossed off the list. We're also contemplating a free-standing variant which would sit firmly in the industrial aesthetic and be targeted at those with ample floor space

Is this the face of wine chillers in 2016?

The workshop needs some serious love as we've been somewhat negligent in our housekeeping; a rush of work at the end of 2015 means that it's a fight to see past copious quantities of swarf, random scrawling of measurements, telephone numbers, discarded cups and Scotchbrite. We're pretty sure there's some machinery in there somewhere we just need to find it. On a machinery related note we're looking at augmenting our collection with yet another lathe but this time with something big, really big - this would give us some unique options by providing the ability to turn items up to 600mm across making us entertain dark thoughts about bespoke sinks, basins, very large lighting fixtures - the list goes on and on

We're thinking big this year, maybe not quite this big, but definitely in the 600mm swing area!

In the portfolio project we've identified an opportunity to create space from nothing (if only that were possible). We do find this relatively often in houses where the unusable space in one room could become usable space by moving a door or a wall for example. In our case we re-purpose 2 square meters of useless space in bedroom by moving a simple curtain wall and in doing so create a mini-mezzanine and change the perception of a steep, narrow stairway

Finally, at least for now, we're hatching a plan to introduce and interview a local business each month. This will be, to use some real clichés; a carefully curated and edited collection. We're looking at purveyors of the strange and unusual, providers of original art, artisans and other makers.

This Week's Obsession: Timothy Oulton

With this post forming a surrogate seven days post it seems appropriate to include an obsession and this week it's Timothy Oulton. We're huge fans of his furniture and some of us are fortunate enough to own one or more pieces. This week our specific interest has once again been peaked by his Explorer sofa and this wonderful tub chair

Here

It's a sofa but not as we know it

As we said, some of us actually already own one or more pieces of his furniture and rest assured that whilst most definitely as the reassuringly expensive end of the market the quality is superb