Materials
Materials we keep coming back to.
Six of them. Each one ages well, forgives a little, and looks better in real light than in a catalog. Hover or tab across a swatch to see the room try it on.
Hover or tab across a swatch to try it on the room.
The room tries it on.
A colour wash, not a render. It shows how warm or cool a material pulls a room before anyone orders a sample. The real decision still happens with the sample in your hand, in your light.
Why each one
Six materials, and the reason for each.
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White oak
Floors, cabinets, benches
Rift sawn so the grain runs straight and quiet. It takes a matte oil finish, scratches honestly and can be sanded twice in its life. We avoid the grey stains that were everywhere in 2019. Natural, with a hint of white, reads warm without going orange.
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Lime plaster
Walls, fireplaces, headboards
Not paint with texture. Real lime, troweled in two coats, with soft movement in the surface that catches side light. It is breathable, it does not need repainting, and small dings can be touched up with a damp sponge. It is also why our rooms photograph the way they do.
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Honed limestone
Counters, tub decks, hearths
Softer than quartz and it will mark. We tell every client this twice. The marks become a patina within a year and the stone goes from new to lived in. Honed, never polished, so fingerprints and water spots disappear instead of shouting.
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Linen
Curtains, bedding, upholstery
Undyed or barely dyed, heavy enough to hang straight, sheer enough to let the light through. Linen wrinkles. That is the point. On sofas we use a linen blend with a performance backing so it survives children and dogs without looking like it is trying to.
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Unlacquered brass
Taps, pulls, sconces
Starts bright and goes brown and soft in about a year, faster where hands touch it. No lacquer to chip, nothing to match across rooms because it all ages together. If you want it bright, polish it. Most people stop polishing after a month and never look back.
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Zellige
Bath walls, backsplashes
Hand cut Moroccan clay tile, glazed one at a time. No two match, the edges are uneven and the colour varies within a single box. We lay it out on paper first so the cuts land where you do not look. Sage, oat and a deep bottle green are the three glazes we use most.
Room style finder
Three questions, three materials.
Answer them and the finder names a direction and picks three materials from the shelf above to start with. Bring the result to the consult, or argue with it. Both work.
A starting point for the first conversation, not a design. Every room gets drawn before anything is picked.
Samples in your light
Nothing gets chosen at the studio.
Our sample wall faces north. Your kitchen probably does not. Every stone, tile and fabric on a project gets carried to your house and looked at in the morning and again in the late afternoon before it goes in the schedule. It takes an extra week. It has saved more than one marriage from a counter that turned pink at 4pm.