Take a walk down the streets of Seville and you’ll be struck by buildings untouched for centuries as well as dozens of handmade timber doors. Each one uniquely crafted and waiting to tell a story. Many of these doors with geometric patterns, as an homage to the cities Arabic origins.  Beautifully eroding as a measure of time.

With no real pavements, the doors of Seville are very important to the people. They act as the only boundary between the street life and the private courtyards.

Architecture of Seville

The current architecture of Seville that you see stems from the African-Islamic population. A community that once inhabited the majority of the city before being conquered. Since then the designs have always had attributes to its Moorish origins. With a lot of buildings incorporating geometry and craftsmanship into their style. The most notable example of this evolution is the Seville Cathedral, which was built on an ancient mosque site and converted the existing minaret to a bell tower.

A Measure of Wealth

The houses and courtyards would have once belonged to larger families. Their entrances would have been a depiction of the family’s wealth. The bigger and grander your door, the more affluent your family was considered to be. Residents would have also competed to own the most decorative and ornate doorknobs, often in brass

Being a resident in Seville, you would have been competing with neighbors to own the most decorative and ornate doorknobs. Often in brass and shaped into hands or animals.

Though the city has evolved through the times, we are grateful it has been able to preserve such rich character.

Bespoke Door for Siouxsie Dickens

At Brandler, we too see how a door can be more than just a door. It can become the threshold into someone’s personality. That is why we went through numerous discussion and drawings when constructing Siouxsie Dicken’s Door. Needless to say, we were very proud of the final design and Siouxsie was very happy with her new door.

Siouxsie’s bespoke timber door depicts art deco and gothic influences and was made to appear as two doors. However, they are attached to function as one huge door, imposing a sense of grandness to any guests. The door uses 150-year-old raw-wood and was painted in an off-black with gold accents. It effortlessly fits into the flat’s modern and contemporary styling.

Get the Raw and Rustic Look

This month we were pleased to hear that we had been featured on the interiors website, Houzz. The article was about achieving a raw and rustic look, so no surprise they wanted to use an image by raw wood specialists Brandler London image.

For the article, Houzz included our warehouse conversion based in Southwark. This project made use of existing raw wood joists and exposed brickwork, bringing new life but holding onto character.

Alongside us, the article spotlighted other designers that were able to combine the use of natural and industrial materials into their designs.

Photo by Orsman

 

Giving helpful tips to create cozy yet contemporary living spaces. Projects featured included impressive uses of incorporating raw wood and metals into spaces that had exposed brickwork or distressed plaster. As well as making the most of your scuffed floorboards.

The Design

We were able to keep to the Brandler style by placing raw aged pine alongside polished concrete worktops, creating a crisp and contemporary design. We were lucky enough to reuse the raw wood from the existing joist to create the cabinet doors. Pair this with the buildings exposed brickwork and our choice of a soft green for the walls, we were proud of how light and relaxing a living space we had achieved.

“…vintage bricks instantly add character to any space. In a kitchen they create warmth, and here work brilliantly alongside natural wooden units.”

Other features of the design included recessed handles with routed steel back-plates as well as retrofitted lighting by Buster + Punch and fully fitted kitchen appliances.

At Brandler, we pride ourselves on being makers of bespoke cabinetry, and our Southwark warehouse is another example of how good we are at working weathered barn wood into high-end contemporary designs.

Please take a look at some other kitchen designs we have work on here.

Photo by Unique Home Stays