At Blake & Bull we just like doing things properly. These pics are a sneak peek at the kitchen we've built for our new showroom. We hope to open it late Autumn. It's like a welsh dresser wrapped around a Aga range cooker. We've created a custom colour for the cooker that will be installed into it. It's built from scratch to the usual Blake & Bull standard.
We've used oak faced 22mm (thick!) plywood throughout and hand built everything. The worktop is solid oak, cut and finished in house, and the beaded panelling behind is all done by hand with solid oak shelving built in. Hidden from view is a beautiful cornice to top it off. The fixtures are solid, unlacquered, aged brass made to Georgian patterns. Those lovely deep drawers are soft close, solid and wonderfully tactile. The hand finished soft radius around the inner edge is a work of art by our woodworker Alastair.
We've put a lot of thought into this and yes, one day we'll be able to sell you one! The Creative Director at Blake & Bull is my wife Sarah. She is also an interior designer in the Bath area and making spaces beautiful just comes naturally to her in a way I envy terribly! She and Alastair are slowly exploring what we can achieve over several projects before we decide how to sell these amazing pieces of furniture, they are not just kitchen units, with matching dining tables.
We've already completed a whole kitchen and boot/utility room in Bradford on Avon and are also building a separate kitchen for our fully featured film studio. Very soon we hope to bring you the first video filmed and produced here at Hartley Farm in our broadcast (almost!) quality studio!
We're building for the long term here, do it once and do it right is our motto on this and every part of what has been, so far, a 9 month project. We've built a new warehouse and associated offices almost from scratch. We've built more offices, the showroom, a workshop and film studio in another building. We've invested in upgrades to our fabrication forge and made sure our home at Hartley Farm is beautiful and wildlife friendly. It's been fun, fraught and overwhelming at times but we've laid the foundations for the next 10 years at least. I love every day.
