Our joinery
Awards
Read details of awards won by DF Joinery.
The
Project
Osborne & Warwick were commissioned in 2021 to design a new staircase for a Georgian house in the Sussex countryside. The house, whilst beautiful and spacious throughout, suffered from a disproportionately small and narrow hallway. For such a grand property, it created an underwhelming first impression. In addition, the original staircase was long gone – replaced by a somewhat bulky and unrefined iteration during the course of a refurbishment program in the 1980s. The effect was overbearing and made the main circulation route within the property feel cramped. The design solution was to widen the space by pushing back the line of some internal walls and to replace the existing staircase altogether.
The
Brief
The brief for the stairs was complex. Due to the restricted nature of the space it was necessary to make the considerable heft of a staircase appear as light and elegant as possible. Our starting point was to remove any newel posts from the design; bulky items running down to the floor would clutter the underside of the staircase and create obstacles within the limited footprint of the hallway. This immediately led us to an elliptical design; a self supporting curvaceous form that appeared to be floating as it unfurled gracefully from one floor to the next. We wanted this fashioned from natural materials (in the end quarter sawn oak was selected) using traditional methods, no CNC machines involved.
DF Joinery were chosen for the project and immediately had an impact, helping to fine tune the design, ensure it worked practically and, crucially, defining the multiple radius points across the overall structure. Technically, it was extremely complex.
“As we walked through the beautiful building it quickly became apparent that the dwelling had huge potential, which made undertaking any work on the property an exciting prospect.
It was also immediately clear that the staircase was going to be a particular issue as it neither suited the house aesthetically, nor fit the space it had been placed in. To compound the problem it also had a newel post running to the floor.
The brief from Toby was to design a staircase befitting the grandeur of the stunning house, and to do so without the newel post.
I quipped that an elliptical staircase would be ideal as it’s self supporting, and though I’d made the remark in jest, the more I considered the idea, the more I felt we could design something in that style. Toby asked me to put a quote together, and once the customer accepted it, we were all go with the project.
It was already an inspiring project, but became even more so when the customer revealed that they had some wood stored in a barn that they had hoped we might be able to use. I went to investigate and was astonished to discover that the wood he had referred to was twenty year old quarter sawn English Oak.
Perhaps most fittingly of all it was wood that had originated from a forest the customer had played in as a child, specifically from a tree he had fond memories of climbing in his youth. It felt apt that we would now use the oak on a staircase he and his family would climb once again from ground to the first floor of their home.
We built the staircase using traditional joinery methods. I began by rodding the staircase out to ensure it complied with building regulations, making a former to form the curved elliptical string which was built using twelve layers of 4mm birch ply. The elliptical string was cut string, with the wall string being closed string.
The Treads and Risers were formed using the customer’s twenty year old quarter sawn oak.
The handrail was continuous and made from Sapele with cast aluminium spindles. The spindles had a threaded rod in one end that was put through the tread and bolted from the underside to provide strength.
It’s satisfying to know that I was able to provide a staircase befitting such a stunning property, and it was a pleasure to have undertaken the project.”
"
client
Osborne &
Warwick
“The end result speaks for itself. An elegant, curving form created from the finest English oak with cast iron balusters, traditionally made with outstanding attention to detail.
Throughout the whole process DF Joinery were a pleasure to work with, creating ingenious solutions to design challenges, maintaining energy and enthusiasm whilst providing outstanding levels of customer service and communication.”