Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was the architect who coined the phrase ‘less is more’, he was a pioneer of the minimalist movement in which the object of design was arrange the essential components of a building in such a way as to create an impression of extreme simplicity.

Today we apply van der Rohes principles to the design of bespoke fitted furniture when used in contemporary interior design to create a feeling of simplicity and space. There is still a place for traditional cabinet design using complex five piece doors with raised and fielded panels or the simpler Arts and Crafts designs, often erroneously refered to as ‘Shaker’, but more and more homemakers and interior designers are showing a preference for plainer styles of furniture that can do much to flatter the smaller living spaces of today’s high density housing.

Ornate, Victorian designs look great in spacious 19th century houses with high ceilings and large sash windows but in more restricted spaces an impression of spaciousness comes from paring things down to their basic elements. This need not imply a loss of aeshetic quality, more that the beauty is found in a simplicity of line and the inherent qualities of the  materials used. Why take a a finely coloured and textured hardwood with all the elegance that nature has gifted it,  cut it into smaller pieces, craft them and join them back together to form a whole in which we admire the craftsmanship when all we needed to enjoy was the natural beauty of the material itself?

I am speaking here of natural timbers such as oak and walnut or even more exotic woods like zebrano, but the same principles can apply to the more popular, and affordable wood effects from which bespoke fitted furniture is usually made. Do we get more pleasure from a panelled wardrobe door made to look like a hand-made hardwood door or is there as much to be appreciated in a beautiful flat door in an attractive recreation of a piece of cherry, perhaps enhanced by a simple and elegant handle?

However, some purists cannot enjoy something that purports to show the beauty of something else by copying it, this is after all what landscape painters have been doing for centuries; when you look at a Constable or a Canaletto you are not seeing the real England or Venice but a reproduction of it. If  an artificial representation of real wood does not work for you, you can take a modern material like MDF and give it a high gloss, or satin lacquered, finish and still see beauty in the lines, the choice of colour and the quality of the paintwork.

Friends of mine recently employed a professional declutterer. A WHAT? I hear you cry but yes; some people do earn their living by helping other people declutter their homes. In fact there is a whole industry out there, try googling declutter or try this website – www.apdo-uk.co.uk

My friends are delighted with the service they have received. Apparently, their declutterer helped them to decide what items needed taking to the council tip, which things to keep, how to arrange their free standing furniture to achieve the most decluttered look and what to put away.

It’s the putting away that intrigues me. Assuming that you don’t dispose of all your clothes and possessions, to achieve the objective you need storage space. Modern houses, in particular, are designed to maximise the use of expensive land and meet planning targets on density, therefore, room sizes are getting smaller and the space for storage furniture is at a premium. Creative use of bespoke furniture in difficult spaces is one solution but you will also need to maximise the use of wardrobes. Bedroom furniture with sliding doors may be one solution to achieving the Tardis Effect. The best way to an uncluttered home life is to adopt the minimalist look that is becoming so popular in interior design. Simple flat doors on wardrobes can make a room look bigger, they need less cleaning and, added bonus, cost less. Particularly popular of late are plain  high gloss doors. However, I have recently noticed a trend to plain wooden and satin lacquered doors, to get that uncluttered look simplicity is everything.

But decluttering the bedroom isn’t everything, minimalist living room furniture can create that Zen like air of tranquilty as well, and for those who work from home, an uncluttered office and a neat and tidy workspace are essential aids to productivity.

Something is happening out there. Clearly there is a nascent, if fragile,  revival in house building and the construction industry but we at Options Fitted Furniture are seeing a substantial increase in enquiries from Architectural practices.

Having recently completed a large fitted furniture contract for Oxford based McLennan architects, we are delighted that our reputation is spreading and we are finding that, in general, architects are beginning to show a greater understanding of how bespoke cabinet making differs from the traditional craft of joinery.

Joinery to the construction industry means doors, staircases and window frames. Carpentry includes the roof trusses and constructural woodwork, usually carried out on site. The Joinery contractor makes prefabricated structures that are delivered to site and joined to the building, often at the ‘first fix’ stage, such as windows, staircases and door linings. At the second fix, the carpenters will install doors and skirting boards supplied  under the joinery contract. Traditionally, this was the stage at which the carpenters would create storage spaces, such as wardrobes, from joinery components on site.

The cabinetry approach is to measure the spaces after the ‘wet trades’ or plasterers have left, make the fitted furniture off site to pre-agreeded designs in specified materials but to ’site dimensions and then deliver and install before the decorators arrive. This requires prompt site surveys, rapid factory turnarounds and skilled, fast installation to fit into the demanding schedules of the construction industry.

The end result is a better looking and more functional product for an increasingly demanding consumer, who no longer wants a piece of furniture that looks like something the builder made up as he went along, but who is not prepared to live out of the removal company’s cardboard boxes while they shop around for fitted bedroom furniture and wait the usual 6 to 8 weeks for delivery.

It has been a long time coming but architects are beginning to appreciate that bespoke fitted furniture, whilst still part of the joinery package, requires a different specifying and installation process than was the case when the new home owner would have been delighted if the new house had a 6ft wide recess in the master bedroom covered by a studwork and plasterboard fascia with a couple of pass doors.

To Norbury Park off the A24 Mickleham Bypass near Dorking.

Tucked away in the North Downs close to Denbies Vineyard, over a narrow bridge on the River Mole, up a winding single track road that seems to go on for miles lies the Norbury Park Sawmill. Sunday was their open day and I was delighted to discover this wonderful source of hand-made, solid hardwood furniture.

The sawmill and wood workshop are owned by the conversation charity Surrey Wildlife Trust. They specialise in the manufacturing of outdoor signs and furniture suitable for all occasions made from English Timbers using  are sourced from wood traditional joinery techniques.

All their timbers are sourced from woodlands managed to the Forestry Stewardship Council standards (FSC) and from within the South East of England. Their workshop waste is used to heat the workshop, as is done at Options Furniture.

All the profits from the sale of their beautiful hardwood furniture contribute towards the management of the countryside and in addition support associated woodland industries that help to preserve wildlife and traditions for future generations.

I was most impressed by a solid oak bed, although would not want to carry it upstairs, and thought some of their oak tables and chairs

were stunning. As well as the predominance of English oak in their furniture, they use many beautiful native hardwoods such as walnut, elm, yew and sweet chestnut.

We were entertained by their resident musical instrument manufacturer playing Irish and English folk music on a hand-crafted dulcimer and watched a wood turner transforming seemingly plain blocks of wood into delicate and elegant bowls which showed the beauty of burr patterns caused by coppicing and pollarding of trees, where young branches are cut off for craftwork such as hurdle making and basket weaving and to encourage regrowth.

Most of all, it was fascinating to see such self sufficient production creating beautiful craftmanship from the raw material, harvested locally and worked from the first saw cut to the finished piece all on one site.

Sadly, at Options we have to buy in our raw materials but from there through to the final installation in the clients’ homes we do add a lot of value and craft skill under one roof.