The true meaning of bespoke
Our client in Essex was performing a major refurbishment to his impressive home. Having already settled upon a front entrance door from another brand, he realised that this supplier couldn’t offer internal doors whose look would adequately complement the front door. The same was true of other brands’ products, which left our client opting for a truly bespoke solution. In a situation like this, we were the natural choice.
Along with their need for superior quality products, the main consideration in this brief was presenting a style that would perfectly complement the entrance door. The client also chose a ‘shadow gap’ style of fitting, where a small gap between the frame and wall creates a modest shadow. This, in turn, provides a subtle yet satisfying visual impact, in effect accentuating the artistic status of the door itself.
Working closely with the client, we were able to create fully bespoke doors, each featuring grooves with exactly the required dimensions in terms of length, width, depth and spacing. The finish is a warm and characterful natural oak – appealing enough in its own right, but also a fine background against which the grooves and their shadows add extra visual charm and interest. Each door sports a beautiful Mandelli Grint handle in matte bronze – every bit as wonderful to look at as it is to the touch.
We worked with our famous precision and attention to detail in order to ensure these internal doors would carry off their shadow-gaps perfectly. Accuracy is key here, since even the slightest imprecision will compromise their installation and potentially ruin the overall effect. In a departure from our typical way of working and a demonstration of our flexibility, the client’s builder fitted the architrave while we installed the doors and frames.
At the client’s request, we also produced an unusual interface between architrave and frame, with architrave 35mm narrower than usual. This set-up deliberately didn’t fully cover the frame’s edge, but instead created a highly unique look, one the client was delighted with.
Overall, this was a unique job for us, with a couple of interesting challenges we were more than happy to rise to. In light of its success, precision shadow-gaps and unusual architraves will be features we offer to more and more of our clients.
“Ian’s team were a joy to work with and understood that we wanted something out of the ordinary and highly specific. They didn’t just take time to really listen to us and then get things perfect, they made sure the whole project ran smoothly too. We couldn’t be more pleased with the end results, especially since we’d begun to think no one could provide exactly what we wanted.”
