College Road

About this project

College Road is a new contemporary six bedroom house in Dulwich Village. The house is half way between Soanes’ Dulwich Picture Gallery, and Barrys’ Dulwich College. The house is ‘L’ shaped, three storeys (one below ground), with a pitched roof.

The Project

This project is a showcase for bespoke joinery:

European Oak floorboards have been used extensively. These provide a complimentary background to the considerable bespoke joinery throughout.

The Study is lined on two sides by European Oak veneered shelving, whilst its end wall has a European Oak bay window seat. This creates a place to sit, look out, and admire the garden. To compliment the shelving and seat, the room also has a European Oak basket weave parquet floor.

The circular Sitting Room is timber panelled. The panelling is 329 mm wide European Ash veneered boards, with the grain running vertically, finished with a milky stain. A series of European Oak French doors link the room to the surrounding garden. Each door has its own splayed reveal, with European Ash shutters and shutter box. The shutters have routed handles cut into their leading edge. The floor has a segmentally cut English Ash parquet floor, radially set out around a central brown Burr Oak rose. The central circular area is surrounded by a series of radial ash rings, set out in a stretcher bond pattern. These rings are laid into the splayed window reveals. This floor has a bleached finish.

The Kitchen island unit is faced in horizontal bands of black Walnut veneer. This has been carefully selected to run (like a single board) across the door fronts. The top and sides of the unit are solid black Walnut boards, joined together by a series of black Ebony butterflies.

The Oak windows in the master bedroom have splayed European Ash veneered shutters. These follow the geometry of the Sitting room below. A single wide section of veneer runs across from the shutter to the fixed panel below. The ‘oyster’ in the grain was carefully set out centrally (and slipped) on the shutters, by the Architect in the Veneer shop. The shutter boxes are veneered to match. The central dressing room unit is veneered black Walnut.

The house has two staircases, a formal shaped staircase at the front of the house, and a circular service stair at the back. The front staircase is manufactured out of solid European Oak, with a black Walnut handrail supported by shaped aluminium balusters. The circular turret staircase has solid European Oak treads fixed onto specially cast ‘tuning fork’ shaped aluminium chassis.

Each of the first floor bedrooms has a European Oak shaped bay window seat. These bays make reading places for the children. Each bedroom is individual, identified by a brightly coloured wardrobe manufactured out of MDF.

All windows, external doors, and the roof corbels are solid European Oak.

• The Wood Awards 'Special Award' winner for 'Innovation' 2010

Source: The Wood Awards