We’ve always loved working with plywood and walnut and Formica (see our Stella and Dot design project), but on this project we harnessed our most inquisitive side and looked to use materials that were new or unexpected. Many of which we have found on our various trips to trade shows and exhibitions and have been waiting for the right project to use them in. And these were just the clients – brave, lively, up for a challenge.

We encouraged them to look a little deeper at their surfaces and finishes. The things you touch everyday. The finishes you look at. The base structure of a room doesn’t always have to be neutral, allowing the pieces to sing. The materials you choose for fitted joinery, flooring, even sinks, can be the star. It just takes a little leap of faith.

First up, Smile Plastics, ‘explorer’ recycled plastic sheets in black and white with the odd fleck of colour or foil to give it life. It’s our new favourite material made from recycled plastic and it comes in all sorts of different colours and finishes that are suitable for use in your home.

Here we’ve gone for a bespoke dining table, made by Lycan Designs. It’s a total star piece in this project.

The joinery in the dining room is made from Valchromat (a type of particle board) that is coloured throughout (here we’ve used blue). It’s the most incredible material, with a subtle movement in the colour that makes it look concrete-like.

The built in drinks cabinet has a cheeky treat of a combo inside, to wow the guests with an after dinner cocktail. Check it out.

In the master bathroom, the sinks had to be special and so we went for bowl basins in black by Kast Concrete. They are made to order and so each one is unique in its patina and placed on the recycled plastic vanity unit we had made, they look so refined, tying the materials from the rest of the house into the bathroom too.

Actual material, girl! – the fabrics used on this projects were commissioned in bespoke colours from a range of designs, more typically used as fashion fabric, by Amelia Graham. The beauty of using bespoke colour ways here was that we were able to control how this fabric brings complex colour elements together, as seen in the alcove storage seat we designed for the open plan living space.

Even the artwork has been approached in a different way, painted directly onto a plywood circle, this work by local artist, Supermundane, pulls the whole scheme together with its bold clash of colours and strong form.

So get creative with the skin on the bones of your interior and take another look at the materiality rather than material things (although they can be fun too) x