The feature stair, expressed in walnut.
A material solution
Walnut runs through the apartment as a material language, carried in the joinery and in the stairs that climb to the mansard, where the kitchen and dining sit. The main new stairs were made in real timber. One section was intended the same way – a steel stair clad in real walnut – but that proved unfeasible on cost, availability and buildability. Rather than break the walnut and material theme throughout the space where the stair continues, it was painted, grained by hand, to read as the timber it runs into.
The measure of the work is in its ability not to be noticed unless you have a keen, trained eye. The painted grain was worked to the tone, figure and sheen of the solid walnut joinery beside it – the shelving, the bar, the panelled runs – so the eye reads a single material throughout.
Walnut & “walnut”
The finish is a specialist artist's craft – base tones laid down, grain and figure painted on by hand, then sealed to match the depth and sheen of oiled timber. It is slow, skilled work, and what lets the painted grain closely match the timber beside it.
