BURNHAM MARKET

Bold, bespoke furniture project in Burnham Market, Norfolk

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"We had worked with the owners of this contemporary barn conversion before," explains Valentin Chardome. "They liked the bespoke furniture we'd fitted for their home in Cambridge, so they approached us to work on their second home near the North Norfolk Coast."

As this was their second home, the family wanted fun and playful luxury bespoke furniture different from their main home. They wanted a range of colours and different but complementary styles.

There were also functional elements to the brief: as a new conversion, the house had no storage. Many of the rooms were big, predominantly empty spaces, so the family wanted to create bespoke storage solutions that acted as focal points for the rooms. In addition, many of the rooms were in the eaves of what was an old farm building, so off - the - shelf freestanding furniture would not fit.

THE BESPOKE HOME & WINE BAR

"We didn't build the kitchen," says Valentin, Founder and Director of Chardome. "It came with the house. However, it was a big open space and the family wanted to expand it further with a bespoke home bar, as they did lots of entertaining. It would also make a great focal point for the space."

We discussed various bespoke bar furniture ideas with the client who wanted a real show-stopper and produced a beautiful bar design with lots of artistic and stylish elements. In addition to the two wine fridges at the bottom, the main surface of the bespoke wine bar was finished in "liquid metal brass" with solid brass fixtures throughout. The doors are 'pocket doors' which slide away so that when the bar is open, the doors aren't in your way. The wood is a beautiful walnut, lit by internal lights and backed by a mirror with an antique Italian finish for an authentic vintage look.

People often want a home bar for functional reasons, but may resist due to so many decades of unfashionable and tacky executions. A home bar remains a useful piece of furniture for many people and Chardome creates timeless pieces - both elegant and functional. "Our approach is always more traditional so they age well. As we do with all our luxury bespoke furniture, we make it fit into the style of the rest of the home, so they don't stick out like a sore thumb. We also frequently have them behind doors as people don't always want all their alcohol and glasses on show all the time."

BESPOKE FITTED WARDROBES IN THE MASTER BEDROOM

The family requested a bespoke fitted wardrobe in the master bedroom that had two features; a large functional storage unit, and an eye-catching focal point.

They needed a bespoke fitted wardrobe because the shape of the eaves wouldn't allow a standard solution. "Because the room is in the eaves, the outermost doors won't open in the normal way - they would hit the ceiling/wall. So we developed bi-fold doors, but used the handles in such a way that it still maintains the symmetry of two doors with mirroring handles."

The wardrobes are solid French Oak finished with an invisible lacquer which protects the wood while not spoiling the beautiful natural colour (often oak finishes leave it orange). Inside are velvet-lined drawers and shelves. Another stylish touch is the black glass shelf that allows users to look down into the top drawer - "for watches and accessories."

The client has a very good eye for style and wanted to break up all of that oak with an accent colour and texture, so we covered the wardrobe door panels with a lovely sage-coloured wool. "It's another bold style choice that really works," says Val.

BESPOKE FITTED WARDROBES IN THE GUEST BEDROOM

The client wanted another bold statement piece for the guest bedroom - "a feature wall that's also a bespoke fitted wardrobe."

A clever touch about this piece is that the far right doors are dummy doors, concealing the chimney as it travels up to the roof from downstairs.

"We had the same design challenge as the master bedroom: the wardrobe doors needed to open into the eaves," says Val. "We used the bi-fold method again, which allows the doors to look like normal wardrobe doors bu open in a way that works in the irregular space."

BESPOKE TV WALL & MEDIA UNIT

Of course, the main role of a bespoke media unit is to house your television. But we love creating multi-purpose bespoke tv wall units that not only wrap around a family's unique lifestyle, but fits into the wider context of the house and its environment.

"And that's exactly what we did for this bespoke media unit," says Val. "It's a brave and bold colour, but it fits in with the modern art on the walls, as well as the greenery of the garden and countryside beyond - which you can see immediately beyond the doors."

Functionally, it's got shelves for display, cupboards to tuck things away, and glass-fronted cupboards for a blend of the two. The family made another bold design choice, to have the two-tone finish: both wood and green paint. "The client had a really great vision for the piece and it really paid off. I love it. They wanted their Norfolk getaway to be fun and unconventional. And they've definitely achieved that. What a piece!"

"We loved working on this project. There were four very different pieces, which made it a varied and fun project to work on. And the client loved it, which if of course the reason we do it, so that was the icing on the cake."

If you're interested in exploring your ideas for a bespoke media unit, bar or fitted wardrobes in Burnham Market, Norfolk and beyond, contact our luxury designers on 01223 651056 or book a visit to our kitchen showroom in Cambridge.