Robb Report - Studio Hopwood

Our wall installation and burr elm table were recently featured in the Robb Report as part of an article on Studio Hopwood.

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Full article available through the link below-

http://robbreport.com/shelter/home-design/daniel-hopwood-sound-of-silence-hyde-park-london-2783918/

The Quest - Homebuilding and Renovating January Issue

It has been great to follow our clients home 'The Quest' through recent TV and other media coverage, including the article in this months Homebuilding and Renovating magazine. 

We supplied a bespoke table for the project with the table top made from 100mm wide strips of kiln dried oak which ran the full length of the table and were joined in width to produce a table top 1000mm wide by 3500mm long and 50mm thick. The bases were a pair of brushed stainless steel hoops.

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HB&R table page.jpg

Slab headboard bed

We have been working on this bed for a client building a new house by a lake in the Cotswolds. I don't think we will be allowed to take photographs on site so have taken some in the workshop whilst in progress. It is made from elm but it has been stained particularly dark.

Waney edge slab headboard
Live edge headboard

Bayswater Project

We have been working on the Bayswater project for Studio Hopwood for over a year now since initial conception and thought we would share some photographs from the beginning.

We thought that it was best to produce a sample section of the proposed wall installation to help iron out some of the issues and further refine the specification

We thought that it was best to produce a sample section of the proposed wall installation to help iron out some of the issues and further refine the specification

The original plan was to use walnut for the shelves, however a pretty extensive search of some sawmills in the French and Swiss Alps did not yield and walnut which suited the brief, some of the views were pretty special though.

The original plan was to use walnut for the shelves, however a pretty extensive search of some sawmills in the French and Swiss Alps did not yield and walnut which suited the brief, some of the views were pretty special though.

Scottish elm provided suitably irregular live edges to produce the variation in the depth the client was seeking, enabling similar variation in the sizes of the light boxes

Scottish elm provided suitably irregular live edges to produce the variation in the depth the client was seeking, enabling similar variation in the sizes of the light boxes

A mock up using the actual shelves to decide the locations of the lightboxes and their dimensions, given the contours of the shelves.

A mock up using the actual shelves to decide the locations of the lightboxes and their dimensions, given the contours of the shelves.

Production in the workshop

Production in the workshop

Installing on site

Installing on site

Finished wall installation

Finished wall installation

And bookmatched burr elm table at the base of the wall with banquette seating

And bookmatched burr elm table at the base of the wall with banquette seating

Install in Jersey

Flew out to Jersey to install some pieces at a new house for a client. Sadly no photographs allowed but I finished early enough to have a walk along the stunning beach. Also tried to persuade the client to let me fly out to install our table at anot…

Flew out to Jersey to install some pieces at a new house for a client. Sadly no photographs allowed but I finished early enough to have a walk along the stunning beach. Also tried to persuade the client to let me fly out to install our table at another project in Barbados in a month's time, they think they can manage that without our assistance.

Chocolate brown elm log

We had a call about this elm log which was coming down at an estate in Scotland. It is chocolate brown in colour which is unusual and very large. We have now had it milled and have stacked it up with sticks between the boards to allow them to air dry before it goes in the kiln.

Drying scottish elm for tables and headboards
Our tree surgeon with the log, due to the width of the log it was necessary to mill one side flat before commencing cutting through the log generally to get the boards.

Our tree surgeon with the log, due to the width of the log it was necessary to mill one side flat before commencing cutting through the log generally to get the boards.

Elm Tree

We try to stay in contact with tree surgeons and ask them to let us know if they have any particularly large trees which are coming down. In this particular case this elm was adjacent to the road and some of the branches had started to die back and the council had ordered it down. We arranged to buy the tree and have it collected by a lorry with a suitably large Hiab to lift the log. It was then taken to a sawmill and milled to our specification.

Sourcing large elm tree from tree surgeon for tabletops
Lifting Elm with Hiab to go to sawmill
Large diameter elm log for tabletops
Drying elm in kiln for tabletops

We have since received the boards back from the sawmill and now the time has come to load them into the kiln to be dried slowly.

Alphabeta Building

We have recently delivered a 6.6m long table made from a bookmatched pair of oak boards. The client, Studio RHE, was very keen to avoid a third leg and also on the 3 dimensional chevron idea for the table base. Given the top weighs close to 500kg we didn't want any errors in specifying the steel for the base so Whetstone Oak had a structural engineers report to check everything was okay.

Engineering calculations for bespoke table
very long bespoke office table
Communal space table at Alphabeta building

Walnut shopping trip to USA

We had a couple of projects requiring large pieces of walnut, so large that they cannot readily be found in Europe so I flew out to the USA to visit some sawmills.

View from the pier in Chicago

View from the pier in Chicago

An American black walnut log showing pronounced and consistent ripple figuring. Ethanol is applied to demonstrate the colour of the wood.

An American black walnut log showing pronounced and consistent ripple figuring. Ethanol is applied to demonstrate the colour of the wood.

Wider view of the ripple American black walnut

Wider view of the ripple American black walnut

Some burl which could make an interesting sidetable

Some burl which could make an interesting sidetable