American Black Walnut Library – Shutford, Oxfordshire

Posted by Luke Cherry, on November 11, 2019.

THE BRIEF:

When Sue and Nick first talked us through their plans for this room, they were extremely clear on what material was to be used and also the orientation of how they wanted the space to feel. Over the course of the project the room was given several names to describe it. The first name it was given and genuinely still my favourite was ‘the man cave’. I felt this describe it perfectly as Nick had the majority of input into the content of the room. Items included were a 127 bottle capacity Fisher Paykel wine cooler, a 43inch 4k Samsung picture frame TV, an Xbox, a dedicated drinks cabinet with bespoke pull out drinks drawer and the real ‘the man cave’ winner for me has to be the 20 year old oil company toy collection with all the flashing lights and moving parts. Other names that it was given were Library and Study but neither really felt as appropriate.

When designing the cabinet layout of the longest wall run, we had to take into consideration where we were going to place the wine cooler and the tv. The tv in our mind had to be placed centrally so Sue and Nicks sofa could sit comfortably in front. The wine cooler was then ideally placed because of its height in the far left corner next to the entrance door. One other requirement which we were instructed to include was book shelf storage surrounding every wall of the room so they could be immersed in their cherished novels.