The Added Value of Custom Joinery

We tend to design and fit custom joinery on a good number of our projects, budget allowing. As opposed to bought furniture such as wardrobes, shelving units, tv units and cabinets, custom joinery allows us to make the most of every space and to maximise storage in the neatest and most visually appealing way. Well designed joinery not only hides away your clutter in an inconspicuous way, it adds value to your home in terms of usable living space.

Well made joinery will far outlive a free standing wardrobe and it's something that stays with your home if you ever come to sell it. In small London flats especially, the last thing you want to do is buy a bulky Ikea wardrobe that sits uncomfortably in a room and makes it feel small and cluttered. Often when flats are designed without custom joinery and sold empty, people struggle to visualise how these necessary bits of furniture will fit and where. On the other hand, custom joinery eliminates the need for these bits of furniture and the rooms are probably laid out in a way that respects the surrounding space of the fitted furniture.

When we design custom joinery, we take this into account from the very start of the project. Therefore, rooms are designed keeping in mind the amount of space needed around a full height cabinet for access, so we make the room big enough to allow for this.

The advantage of working with your interior designer is that they can help you to design not only the joinery that you require but to make it work with the rest of the house. The fun part is getting to plan the exact layout of your wardrobe, how many shelves you want in your bathroom cabinet, how your tv unit lights up underneath and where to store your unsightly cables and technical bits of gear and what finish everything comes in.

Clients are sometimes taken aback by the cost of custom made everything but if your really start to think about the cost of all the additional furniture needed to keep your house tidy and purely just the functional benefits of having everything built around the layout of your house, the price really makes sense.


Here are some examples of custom fitted furniture we have designed in recent projects:

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Choosing the Right Tiles - An Article by Milena

Bathrooms require more durable materials than the rest of the house as they are constantly under strain from water. So far, the most popular materials for these rooms are stone, ceramic, porcelain, and glass. All of these materials are beautiful, strong, and come in a variety of shapes and colors.

To narrow down in size and material you need to know exactly where the tile will be placed. Most commonly, stone, ceramic, and porcelain are used for counters and floors. Glass is mostly used for walls and backsplashes.

Ceramic tile are tiles made from thin slabs of clay or other inorganic materials, hardened by oven firing and usually coated in a glaze. They are a good fit in bathrooms or other moisture-rich environments, as well as in kitchens as they do not harbour bacteria. They are easy to clean and install, waterproof, sturdy and great value for the price.

Porcelain tile is actually a subtype of ceramic tile and now a very a popular choice for bathroom floors. Porcelain is a denser, more porous, and harder option that offers greater stain and water resistance than ceramic tile. The manufacturing process of porcelain provides many more design possibilities than ceramic tiles. As a harder tile, it is also harder to wear down.

Ceramic tile vs. Porcelain tiles

These two types of tiles might often look the same but below the surface lies a world of differences. The main difference is hardness rating and porosity. Ceramic tiles are made from natural compounds and therefore, are softer and easier to cut than porcelain. Porcelain tiles are much harder to cut and due to their low porosity, they require a special compound for setting. Although porcelain bears the perception of high quality, it is not always the best choice for a residential application and tends to work better in commercial settings, as its toughness is unnecessary for domestic kitchens and bathrooms.

Glass tiles are a common choice for bathrooms today because they are easily recycled and come in a wide variety of colors and finishes. Mosaic tiles are usually shaped in rectangles, squares, or "pennies". However, in terms of installation costs, they are more expensive to fit and also harder to maintain as there is a lot of grout, which means a lot of area that can get cracked or stained.

Natural stone wins in durability and its natural beauty, and since no two stones are exactly alike, a natural pattern will emerge on tiled floors or walls. Natural stone requires more maintenance than ceramic, porcelain or glass. A smooth stone works better in kitchens, where surfaces will need regular wiping, but a textured stone floor will help prevent slips on a bathroom floor. Attention must be paid to the cleaning products used on natural stone as some chemicals will stain or bleach tiles, but natural stone requires regular, careful cleaning to prevent limescale and other residue build-up.

How much do they cost?

Tiles vary wildly in price range, from £10-£15 per square metre for very basic tiles, up to 100's of pounds per square meter at the luxury ceramic and porcelain tile end. For a good mid-range tile, you should look at spending anywhere between £35-£50 per square metre.

How to find a good tiler?

A bathroom fitting company who are providing a tiling service within a full bathroom refurbishment is likely to charge you much more for installation than a sole trader / independent tiler. However, whether you will get the same guarantees from a sole trader is debatable. A good tiler will give you a written quote detailing all the specifications. It also mentions the time required to finish the job, number of tiles needed, additional materials required, and so on. The best is to compare the quotes offered by the three to five recommended tilers in the area and choose the one that suits you best. If you are working with an interior designer, your designer will take care of finding the best tiler based on their experience. 

 Limestone tiles laid in a herringbone pattern

Natural blue slate tiles

Ceramic tiles 'folded' from Italian supplier Mutina

Ceramic tiles printed with patterns to imitate

encaustic concrete tiles

Glass tiles as a kitchen backsplash

Porcelain tiles from Mandarin Stone

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The Shaker Style Kitchen

The Shaker kitchen is known for being a traditional style and is often associated with farm houses and 'country kitchens'. Nowadays, it's rising again in popularity because of new ways of executing the shaker cabinet fronts. Modern shaker kitchens are simpler and finished in matt, earthenware colours. We think they're great.

A few of our favourite companies that offer modern shaker kitchens:
1909 Kitchens
deVOL Kitchens
Guild Anderson

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Dica Cucine & Bano

We love Dica kitchens and bathrooms. It's a Spanish brand that we have worked with in the past - their designs are great and right on trend. Their kitchens especially are much more interesting than the simple white kitchens that have dominated the market for so long. Dica is all about colour, texture and class. The style of their kitchens is hard to name because they are modern but at the same time, the materials they use bring a sense of tradition to the designs. Their kitchens are detailed exquisitely and their soft, off-white ranges are right on trend!

Check out their website to see all of their kitchen and bathroom ranges.  Dica Cucine

From their Website:

dica is a company that is present in the market for 25 years. During this time our business culture has evolved to today influenced by product design, innovation and responsibility.

We believe in design that balances form and function and at the same time excites us. In dica we think that form and function must serve people, to satisfy the demanding needs well. Who designs furniture and spaces also designs their environment and the interaction with people who live in. We believe in kitchens and bathrooms that fit the daily rhythm in a natural way and which would meet the functional characteristics of each person.

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