Charlotte Baring Design

The kitchen at Copse Farm is finished and the sun is shining in today so I thought it really merited a few photos.

I’ve imagined putting a red island in a kitchen for a long time and here it is enfin!

I sourced the island worktop from .hardwoods near Hungerford. I loved the process of choosing the planks from entire sawn trees stocked floor to ceiling high in a giant warehouse. It’s exciting choosing materials in their raw form and seeing what they then become. You also tune your eye into things you don’t always notice, like the pretty medullary rays which are flecked across the wood in quarter sawn planks.

I asked our very talented kitchen maker Simon to keep the waney (live) edges along the sides of the boards to retain a rustic character. Simon also cleverly joined the boards together using the traditional method of putting in bowtie keys in to stop the wood moving too much. These have turned out brilliantly and give added charm to the worktop.

These curtains are kept simple in order not to take away too much focus from the lovely cristal style doors and windows but the simple red ties add a bit of colour and interest to these.

The Mexican tiles make a good backdrop for the dark blue-grey Aga.

Love love love this kitchen ❤️.

More colours and shapes and patterns than I could have imagined at this wonderful small artisanal tile manufacturer in Salernes. All handmade made, hand-painted and glazed There are a hundred places I could imagine putting them all. Salernes has been famous for its terracotta since the early 19th Century but the art of terracotta making has been around for thousands of years.

Working on sprucing up a lovely game lodge in South Africa. I thought it would be a nice idea to try and stick to local brands and am so excited to have discovered so many lovely fabrics and great local companies.