Walnut and Slate Apartment

The organising idea is a single wall. Full-height walnut runs from the entrance through the kitchen, and everything that would normally interrupt it — tall storage, the oven housing, two doorways — is cut into it flush so the grain reads as continuous. Getting that right is a drawing problem before it is a making problem: every hinge, every gap and every appliance had to be set out before a panel was cut.

Against the walnut, the island and worktops are a dark honed slate with a mitred edge, so the working surfaces read as solid stone rather than as a slab on a box.

The blue alcoves are the counterweight. Painted recesses at the entry and in the bedrooms break what would otherwise be a very disciplined palette, and each one carries a piece of joinery — a floating console, a round mirror, a bedhead — so the colour always has a reason to be there.