CREATIVE Craftsmanship homes

Nick Williams and Dave Jones had been friends for more than two decades. Dave started Cord Industries in 2014, hand-making contemporary furniture in wood and steel. After studying boat building in Falmouth, Nick had also founded his own business creating bespoke fitted interior and exterior joinery. Joined by Luke White, who achieved an MA in design thinking at the University of Plymouth before spending ten years designing innovative products for the UK furniture industry, the trio discovered that their individual expertise perfectly complemented each other, so they decided to combine their talents to form Coast Creative.

Luke explains their creative process: “Customers can have as much or as little input into the design as they want. The team will attend an initial site meeting to get a feel for the whole space and discuss the client’s wants and needs and the style that they’re aiming for. We’ll take measurements and start a generous design process that typically begins by us modelling the space in 3D, working through layouts and styles that best fit the space and customer needs. Luke might go through as many as 15 iterations before the client even sees the first design document to achieve the perfect balance between functionality and aesthetic, “We’re not taking prefabricated products and placing them together in a layout to best fit the space.”

Customers can take inspiration from Coast Creative’s portfolio of work or bring their own images and ideas to the table. “Every time I start a project, I love to design at least one element that’s unique; that’s what drives me and makes it an exciting business to be in,” adds Luke. What defines Coast Creative is a thoughtfulness at each stage of the development and production process. Nothing is rushed due to the amount of planning that is involved. The workshops collaborate to take full advantage of the team’s diverse background across design and manufacturing. “From different backgrounds and opinions come different ideas on how things can be achieved, making the workshops both a creative and a learning environment,” adds Luke.

Coast Creative is very much about creating spaces which deliver both style and function in all areas of the home. “When people are visualising a new home or undertaking a renovation, I think that there are elements of fitted furniture that are often overlooked. The kitchen is often the centrepiece, but there’s no reason why other areas, such as bedrooms, can’t benefit from the same attention,” explains Luke.

There’s no doubt that Coast Creative takes a client focussed approach; each component, whether it be a piece of freestanding furniture or bespoke interior, is intentionally designed to improve the at-home experience. What also sets them apart is the choice and the scope of materials that they work with. As Dave, Luke and Nick all have different industry backgrounds it allows them to work with metals, traditional joinery, and contemporary sheet materials, adopting both computerised manufacturing and traditional hand-crafting techniques in a house style that combines the organic with a nod to the industrial.

Metal is used for strength and purpose, softened by the natural aesthetic of timber. The whole process is precise, so much so that from final client sign off, it can take up to two weeks to produce the detailed CAD files needed for the CNC router, tube, and flat-bed laser cutters. Most components are manufactured or made in-house, however, if the team must outsource, they know that there will always be a perfect fit, because it’s all computer controlled to the millimetre.

Coast Creative’s most recent installation, Noordhoek, is one of the most significant residential developments in Cornwall in recent years; the kitchen and pantry alone cover 470 square feet and the project has utilised every single one of Coast Creative’s specialist services. A dream project, “The owners gave us the architect’s drawings for the layout but after that we had carteblanche to suggest anything we thought would work to fulfil their design objectives, explains Luke. Luke created such an incredible concept: a 4.7m floor-to-ceiling Crittall-style screen between the kitchen and pantry, an enormous wine glass rack suspended from the roof above the kitchen island and the most incredible cast-in-situ concrete worktops. We also went for a really complementary mix of finishes and materials: natural oak door and drawer fronts, matt black on all the metalwork, blackened oak on the storage, and a micro-cement finish on the highline cabinet doors. There are so many bespoke details, and it was such a great journey to go on with them, and something we look back on with a huge amount of pride.” www.thecoastcreative.co.uk

So impressed were the owners with their work in the kitchen that Coast Creative was commissioned to supply the bedroom storage, a large room divider and a good deal of the furniture including hairpin leg bar chairs in zinc yellow for the kitchen island and the BBQ counter in the games room.

It’s these one-off freestanding furniture pieces that form the other arm of the business, sold via e-commerce, and delivered all over the world. Beautiful in its simplicity, this is functional furniture at its best. By blending skills, Coast Creative’s work is a celebration of honest materials and design integrity, blending traditional joinery with modern materials resulting in a clean, contemporary, effortless aesthetic.