“Beauty Found in Simplicity”: At Home in Devon with Design Purists Russell and Oona of Pinch Furniture
The two together run Pinch, a London furniture company that is all about refined details, honest materials, and unstinting craftsmanship. They had already devoted years to turning a cow shed in France into a vacation retreat for themselves and their two daughters. Did they have the stamina and the savings for another pipe dream? The owners of the property, British/American artist Suzanne Blank Redstone and her husband, Peter Redstone, had formerly run the UK’s first organic ice cream business in the main building, a 17th century cob barn. They were looking to create a small enclave of kindred aesthetes and once Russell and Oona made the four-hour drive, they were in.
That was 10 years ago, and now, several Covid lockdowns later—as well as a major flood that forced ground floor reconstruction and budget constraints that led to Russell and his father, John, doing the bulk of the interior construction work themselves—the couple are nothing but enthusiastic. They spent two years refining plans with David Kohn who shares their sensibilities and approached parts of the house as, in his words, “large pieces of furniture.” He also led them down surprising paths, including inserting a Japanese-style central courtyard and partially submerging the kitchen and dining area. Come see it all.
Photography by Michael Sinclair, courtesy of Pinch.
Above: The central new building is clad in locally quarried pink sandstone edged with reclaimed brick also lined up vertically on the chimney. The back of the house overlooks a newly introduced one-acre wild flower meadow. Russell and Oona worked with landscape designer James Hamilton who planted, among other things, some 500 trees on the rolling property. In the background, that’s the rooftop of the original barn/ice cream factory, now the daughters’ bedroom wing. The combined structures are 2,400 square feet and were recently named UK House & Garden’s Project of the Year.
Above: The couple’s year-round kitchen garden flanks a flagstone entry path. Russell tells us that they initially wanted to be able to park in front—”but in reality, it was awful to walk by the car to get to the front door, so we immediately ripped that out and put in vegetables.” The concrete-framed stainless steel door alludes to the property’s factory past.
Above: The aforementioned central courtyard is just beyond the front door. “Every room has a window or door looking onto it, so you’re always seeing greenery,” says Russell.
Above: The double-height living room has an inglenook fireplace big enough to stand in—its Danish wood-burning stove supplements the house’s concrete floors with radiant heating. The walls are painted cinderblock—”we planned to have poured concrete, something that’s straightforward to do in the city, but not, it turns out, in the middle of the countryside,” explains Russell. “We had to value engineer and went with concrete block, traditionally not a very attractive finish. But these are are ‘fair-faced breeze blocks’—they’re better quality and smoother than the norm. Of course, every material depends on how you use it. David arranged the blocks so the horizontal lines throughout are perfect: when you go from room to room, the lines line up. It’s subliminal but makes a big difference.”
Note the upstairs balcony and window—”David talked to us about the theater of the space and that it’s nice to have a touch of drama,” says Russell. The furnishings throughout are Pinch designs mixed in with antiques. The Hungarian tapestry over the Angelo sofa is from London gallery 8 Holland Street.
Above: Russell and Oona met while working together at The Nest, the branding studio Russell founded after years spent post-design school as Sir Terence Conran’s design assistant and protégé. The couple went on to found Pinch in 2004 “to create furniture and lighting we would want to live with”—they’re currently celebrating their 20th anniversary with a month-long pop-up show that recently opened at the Jacqueline Sullivan Gallery in Tribeca.
Oona runs the business and Russell designs Pinch’s furnishings, which begin as sketches and often reference classical silhouettes (this is his Goddard sofa in Kravet velvet). The two are shown here in their library. The stairs lead up to their bedroom and the balustrade of custom curved cinderblocks frame the steps down to the dining/kitchen area.
Above: Several popular Pinch designs were created in response to the Devon house’s needs, including the Rodan table and Soren Globe Light shown here. The company sources the majority of its materials in the UK and works with local makers. “Our design process is all about beauty found in simplicity and the indulgence of well-crafted detail,” they write. Oona brought home the patchwork wool rug from a trip to Turkey.
Above: Steps lead down to a sunken dining room and kitchen—which was David’s creative workaround height and footprint restrictions. Pinch’s oak Mead dining table is surrounded by its Avery chairs in oak and leather; the pendant light is the Soren 600, which like its globe-shaped counterpart in the library, has a shade of plant fiber. The rush area rugs on the polished concrete floor here and in the living room were custom made by Remodelista favorite Rush Matters. The cinderblock walls throughout are painted Farrow & Ball’s Strong White, one of our Architects’ 8 Favorite Pure White Paint Picks.
Above: “I was worried the room would have an underground feel—it’s a meter down—but thanks to an 11-meter-wide window with no verticals, the opposite is true: we look out at garden and sky,” says Russell.
Above: Oona tends succulents on the windowsill: “we have plants inside and out; everything is huge because we get so much sunlight.”
Above: Joni, a Bedlington whippet, stands in the kitchen, which Russell and his father hand built from Danish flooring company Dinesen’s Douglas Fir—”we ordered a mixed batch from Dinesen; it’s all different grades and dimensions, but the same thickness. We had it machine cut and my father and I installed it—as cupboards, shelving, stairs, and flooring.” John Pinch, his son tells us, was a design teacher and is a master of many trades, including gold- and silversmithing. “He’s one of those people who is never fazed by the enormity of a project. Thanks to him, I grew up with a saw and plane in my hand.”
Above: Russell and John finished the Douglas Fir with Osmo’s white oil–”it keeps the wood more pink than orange.” Admiring the hanging kitchen tools? See Trend Alert: 13 Kitchens with Utensil Rails.
Above: The daughters’ bedrooms are in the converted old barn, which is thought to date to the early 1600s. Shown here, Pinch’s Christo four-poster bed and Yves desk in Floris’s room. Russell and Oona bought the Pendleton blanket at a Brooklyn flea market.
Above: In Ada’s room, a Pemberton quilt covers Pinch’s Moreau bed next to a Goddard armchair and Ewer light.
Above: Situated upstairs from the living area, Russell and Oona’s suite has giant pivot windows that frame the meadow, woodlands, and fruit orchard. To “contemporize” their Aston Matthews cast-iron roll-top bath, Russell raised it on steel legs—”I got one of our metal workers in London to make them. They’re just painted.” The floor and cabinets are all Dinesen Douglas Fir.
Above: The painting over the tub is by Polish artist Agnieszka Katz Barlow, a friend of the couples who showed her work in Pinch’s Ebury Street store.
Above: The view from here. Could Russell still be perusing real estate listings from bed?
More Pinch designs:
* “Their furniture is both classic and simple with a contemporary overlay,” we wrote in our first post about Pinch Design back in 2009.
* Just-Right Beds: Three Modern Heirloom Designs
* Object of Desire: Fine Furniture for the Bath | bit.ly/3XLoEJb
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