Described by the Sunday Times as the Mozart of Kitchen Cabinet Makers and by others as showing the creativity of David Bowie in his work with hardwoods, Mark Wilkinson OBE is a London born designer, who now lives with his family in rural Wiltshire.
The home he now lives in began life in the 15th Century and features a lake that he created from an underground brook, in which he placed a small island, with a cave in which a dragon lives.
He is a Fellow of four design-related organisations and was the first in 50 years to be awarded his OBE by the Queen, for Services to the Furniture Industry.
His work is often categorised within the sub-culture grown from the literature of H G Wells and Jules Verne and, while he shares that degree of originality, Wilkinson quotes the classic Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Arts & Crafts movements as his greater inspiration. He describes his technique as standing at the workbench of those originators and applying his own experience and 21st Century tooling
Mark Wilkinson – Marilyn: Where is the best place for a beautiful woman to store her jewellery, when she’s not wearing it… formed in solid walnut, here Mark Wilkinson shows his Marilyn jewellery cabinet.
____________________________________________
Mark Wilkinson OBE
Can you tell us a little about the company’s background?
For me Mark Wilkinson Furniture is a second generation business, so rather than say it began with tiny shoots slipping their roots into the ground it is rather a cutting from the parent plant.
The parent, at the time being a company called Smallbone.
I was involved in the beginning of Smallbone, which did take root in a more traditional way and began to grow in a culture of Rock & Roll. It was the work of three young men, who found skills in each other and a demand for a form of work that no-one, at the time, was providing.
I was one of those three.
I should say at this point that I am profoundly Dyslexic, which was completely misunderstood when I was at school and so my education finished with me carrying none of the normal competencies of education, like reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead my teachers told me I was stupid, but I am now a member of Mensa and can show a Genius level of intellect.
I did know however, that in my younger days I was unemployable, so I started to work for myself and I began by finding pieces of old furniture and, from the massive rebuilding programme in the UK at that time, I secured stocks of re-claimed pine floor-boarding, which I used to refresh the old dressers, tables and side-boards that I lay my hands on.
My two contemporaries also had their own business; they had customers in the London ‘antiques’ sector, who served a demand for old Pine Dressers. They too would find old furniture from whatever source was available and then they would dip them in chemicals to give them a cleaner, aged look… and sell them on. Their problem was that the chemicals that stripped off old paint and lacquers also melted the glues that held them together and very often they would call on me to put the pieces of furniture back together. So, the three of us had this loose working relationship. It grew closer when, one day, one of the London stores that they supplied, was visited by the wife of one of that era’s record producer (1970s) who asked them for an Old Pine kitchen.
Mark Wilkinson – Arts & Crafts – Hutton 011- One of the most Hi-Tech kitchens I have fitted, with all of the equipment hidden away in the island and controlled by Smart-phone or tablet – a classical Arts & Crafts
They asked if I could make a fitted kitchen from the furniture and old stocks of 4 inch boarding that I had. The work I had been doing had already awakened an interest in me for design and the designers I had experience of, were from a time 50 years, sometimes 100 years earlier. I shunned the brochures of modern German kitchens that my contemporaries had found for me and created my own version of a kitchen that had a yester-year charm and was very easy to live with, as well as to work on.
The response was amazing and for five years we were swept away by the energy of the situation that we found ourselves in, making kitchen furniture and installing complete kitchens for the Country’s business people as well as sports and music celebrities.
After five years, I needed to express my design ideas over a broader platform and my wife, Cynthia and I sold our share of the original business and started our own company, Mark Wilkinson Furniture. We built the brand and ran the company until we sold it… to Smallbone Plc, ten years ago.
I have remained attached and these days I am the company’s Design Consultant.
What ideas currently inspire the company?
The company is a true bespoke manufacturer, working at the very top sector of the market, as a furniture-maker and, a retailer of fitted kitchens, integrating that furniture, with products made by others into designs of kitchen layouts to suit the individual clients home and lifestyle.
Are there new design aesthetics that are currently in vogue?
The new design aesthetic that is currently in vogue in the UK, is a form of much more open living that is effecting the layout of our kitchens and the whole interior design of the ground floor. It is being influenced by two modern features, under-floor heating (back to the Roman times) and web-linked devices, which we are using very socially and are best used when the whole family is sharing the same space.
Now we have mastered the means to heat our homes without chimneys and fire-places and without wall hung radiators, we no longer need the walls and the doorways and the whole ground floor is much more open.
On the one hand it makes the area for the kitchen much larger, but the balance is that there is now a requirement for a sofa and easy chair and a TV to share the space… perhaps too a dining table and coffee table and definitely a sitting area… what we used to call a breakfast bar, where visitors or other family members can park themselves and still socialise with the person using the kitchen.
Mark Wilkinson-bespoke NE-Brittain_08 – Natural light through sliding doors that allow those who dwell in the house to more easily expand their lifestyle into the garden, notice too, the easy chairs and television.
What path led the company to kitchen design?
Customer demand, for a very English Country Cottage style, that wasn’t being fulfilled.
In the 1970s the market for fitted kitchens was developing rapidly and the German importers were leading the way but my reading of the zeitgeist of the time picked up the desire for a living space that was welcoming and comfortable to live in.
In the States it was bright sunshine colours and an almost ‘cluttered’ look, in the UK it was the run-down from dark woods, like Teak, towards the more friendly Pine and from the cutting-edge fashions of Mary Quant and towards the more romantic designs of Laura Ashley
As we all know, the German culture is one of standardisation, efficiency and engineering. My way is far more ‘poetic’. More ‘Human’.
Minimalism seems to be throwing itself at us as a contemporary fashion for living.
I’m not a minimalist… I am a maximalist… I want more of everything… more love, more life, more joy, more friendship. I don’t want a minimalistic design that is so disciplined you can’t leave anything out of place. I wanted a room that welcomes me home after a day’s work. A room that tells me to dump my boots where I like and relax, with a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and lounge around as I want to, let my friends drape themselves where they want and my children leave their iPads and telephones in all the wrong places. I want a room that cares for me and mine, not one that demands things of me.
Can you tell us about your evolution in furniture making techniques?
My evolution, well, in my early days as a furniture maker everything was hand-made. The machinery was classic saws and lathes, with the carpenter at the heart of the action. These days I have an equal appreciation for the skills of the computer programmers, who unlock the mysteries of the Computerised machinery… like the five-axis-router, without which we would not be able to make many of my designs commercially.
My evolution as a designer began with those first designs and never stops I have a compulsion for creating beautiful things and have in my mind today, more ideas than will ever come to fruition in my lifetime. I actually design too much, but, it’s what I do.
I still retain my values of environmental care… my company pioneered the use of non-toxic lacquers and paints at a time when the industry bodies tried to stop me, because they weren’t the ‘Standard’. I put processes in place to use any of the waste materials we produced and my company, before we sold it, had a written environmental policy which everyone in the company signed up to.
It is also important to me to create a design that will last… we make furniture to a quality that will last 200 years and to do that it has to be as desirable a piece of furniture to the forthcoming generations, who will live in the houses, where my furniture is fitted.
Mark Wilkinson – Chain Mail – 4823: Some call it ‘steampunk. Mark Wilkinson expresses the fun and creativity of his work with, this chain-mail ‘throw’ and curtains… notice too, the medieval-styled halberds used as curtain-rail and the winches Wilkinson made to draw the curtains at night.
What role do colors play in your designs?
I am a spatial visual thinker, so I ‘see’ my new designs as pictures, in full colour, inside my head, before they become black & white line drawings. Colour, however, is very personal and while today’s favourites may be greys and solid blues, or purples, my advice to people is ‘to be bold’. Never be frightened of colour, furniture in the kitchen can always be repainted.
Light is often more important to the way we feel, especially natural light.
What do you like about designing furniture?
Designing furniture is my way of speaking. It is what I do.
Do you have a particular favorite kitchen design?
I have a style called English Classic, which means a lot to me, because I have taken a classic style, for making doors, which is described as ‘Raised & Fielded’ and have turned it around, so that it becomes an exercise in fine English furniture making. Very delicate and beautifully proportioned.
Mark Wilkinson has expanded over the years from focusing on kitchen furniture to other rooms and designs. Can you tell us about that change in focus over the years?
One of my beliefs is that any design, or style, must have ‘life’.
What I mean by that is that if I design a style of furniture, then that style must be able to be used in all manner of other products… like shoes, or cars, or buildings. If that is not the case and the style only works in furniture… to me that’s a dead, or at best a ‘dead-end’ design.
And the way we live has changed over the past few decades… we have no need now for the small rooms with individual heating that we needed in the later decades of the last century and it has allowed us to spread-out. We work from home more, so more demand for home-studies, we are even doing ‘his and hers’ designs for home- desks and fully- fitted offices. And our entertainment has changed, the web-devices have proliferated, families are finding it easier to share each other’s company in open rooms.
So, how has that influenced my furniture… I design furniture that is easy to live in, multi-purpose… more beautiful to look at.
Mark Wilkinson – Cinderella Coach: A bed for a ‘little princess’, in fact an adult could fit in it… the Cinderella Coach, made by Mark Wilkinson Furniture in their workshops in Wiltshire, England.
What is the current direction of the company?
In England, we are looking to boost the buying experience for any home owner, who is refurbishing their kitchen, by showing my styles of furniture in full room-sets. To help design-conscious home owners ‘see’ what the real kitchen, will feel like, when they have their own installed.
We are also working hard on colours, both of paints and of stains, to match the current contemporary shades and take a step forward into the future.
People like to have the latest design and look, we have to remain ahead of the game to make sure that is what we can offer them.
On top of that, currently the company is enjoying greater demand from the markets in the USA, particularly New York, where we have been commissioned to install our kitchens in luxury homes on West 57th Street, West End Avenue and Fifth Avenue, amongst others.
Are there any favorite designs that your clients are really favoring right now?
New England, a Classic design of which was inspired by the beautiful architecture on the Eastern Seaboard… and Milan, which is often described as Haute Couture, due to the rich mixture of materials in its makeup. It has a steel rod handle covered in hand-stitched leather for instance and semi-circular wall cabinets.
Where do you see Mark Wilkinson in 5 or 10 years?
That’s too good a question to answer. :)
More about Mark Wilkinson:
I have a compulsion for making beautiful things and surrounding myself with them.
“We are affected by our surroundings far more than we imagine”
I love natural things.
I find working on my land, most therapeutic. I am never happier than when I am tidying the woodland around our home, chopping logs for winter, or cutting the hay in the meadows. Building my Stone Circle.
Hard physical work.
I love food and thoroughly enjoy cooking.
I like to keep fit and get into the Gym whenever I can; in fact I have small gym at home.
Mark Wilkinson – Brook House, Bromham: Fifteen years ago, it was a derelict farm cottage, first built in the 1500s… now it is one of the most spectacular homes in England.
Upcoming films or plans?
Today, there is such a rapid evolution in the way we capture images, in the way we heat and light our homes… in the way we transact with one another… the company seems to be racing to stay ahead these days, the latest developments are a new web-site, probably featuring far more videos and moving images… plus, the new way of presenting our furniture within our showrooms… more experiential.
The social media channels are growing ever more influential as is the use of Tablets and Smart-Phones… exciting stuff.
Social Media Accounts for Mark Wilkinson Furniture
Web: www.mwf.com Twitter: @TheOfficialMWF
Mark Wilkinson Kitchen starts around £40,000
For more information on Mark Wilkinson showrooms – Tel: +44 1380 850007 – or visit – www.mwf.com
Cover image: Mark Wilkinson – Newlyn – Grange – 08: Mark’s latest design, Newlyn, one of the most stylish ‘handle-less ‘ designs on the market.
Related Posts
An Interview With Russia's Beloved Travel Television Presenter And Journalist, Dmitry Chulov
10000
Dmitry CHULOV is a professional travel journalist, photographer, blogger and traveller. In the last century Dmitry traveled one half of the world and in this century he’s planning to visit the other half. He’s a prolific and exacting journalist who had filmed documentaries on important subjects and explored the far…
An Interview With Film Director, Howard Hall
10000
Howard Hall is a groundbreaking marine and wildlife film director and cinematographer. Howard directed the first ever underwater IMAX 3D feature film, "Into The Deep". Of the five highest grossing 3D films produced by IMAX Corporation, two were directed by Howard Hall. Into the Deep has earned box office receipts of over…
The Heart Of An Actor: A Candid Interview With Stelio Savante
10000
Stelio Savante is an award winning actor. Savante's career has traversed the globe not just in location but also in cultural and psychological portraits that he brings to life on the screen and stage. To be an actor, you must understand humanity. Savante is a master of that. His recent…
Happy Bondi's Interview With Mountain White Co.'s Robert Stanwyck
10000
Robert Stanwyck created Mountain White Co., a premier outdoor apparel company with some hard work, inspiration and creativity. In this interview Robert describes the idea behind the design and colors of his duffles and backpacks: Both backpacks and duffles are inspired by great people and achievements. The blue/red/blue is inspired…
The Inspiring Story Behind Festka Bicycles: A Candid Interview With Michael Moureček and Ondřej Novotný
10000
Festka produces hand made and hand painted bicycles. The product of a collaboration between co-founders, Michael Moureček and Ondřej Novotný, Festka has developed into a precision company where no detail is too small. Focused on the rider and the rider's expectations, Festka is able to capture the imagination and the spirit…