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.