Tandridge project – iii. dining area

If you’re going to have an open plan kitchen and dining space there are a few ways you can arrange it to suit scaling up and down but we’ve always been a fan of picking a table size and sticking with it as opposed to an extending table. There are some scenarios where an extending table makes sense (e.g. Crouch End Project) but most of the time, the scale of the room will largely tell you what size table you can fit it and it’s important to think about the balance of everyday life and the occasions when you might want to scale up.

For our clients here, an 8-10 seater dining table really made sense on a weekly basis with family and friends visiting so we designed this in from the get-go. The dining table at this size really suits the space, provides plenty of flow in and around it and works beautifully with the overall design.

The Byron dining table is finished in Berkeley oak and is made from solid oak – its weight is a testament to this fact! The table was handmade, along with the rest of the cabinetry and furniture, at our workshop in Felsted, Essex and measures 3m in length. All our tables are made to order and can be in a bespoke size, but we also sell set sizes – you can see more here.

The Havisham dining chairs were chosen to tie in with the counter stools and the majority are upholstered in a taupe Italian leather with the two end chairs upholstered in a Perennials wide stripe for a bit of a change and a link back to the upholstered Harris bench in the kitchen. It’s always a hard one choosing leather or fabric for upholstery and even though Perennials fabris is as close to bomb proof as possible, with little ones you just can’t beat a quick spray of antibac and a wipe over which is the case with leather. I think the balance here works really well and avoids the board room look with too many leather chairs.

The drinks bar … what can we say? It’s just perfect. Tall Gaggenau integrated wine storage to the left (inspired by the Haslemere project), red wine storage either side of the integrated CoolDrawer, tall glazed storage with a mirrored back to the right and a lovely big open bar concealed behind countertop doors that even has adjustable shelves above.

It’s just so lovely when you’re entertaining to have a drinks bar of any size and one of the best bits is the illumination you get while you’re sitting down to dinner. And the colour chosen – Soot – just has the perfect balance of moodiness and richness to look absolutely spot on here. Couldn’t be more pleased with this area.