Projects
83 Hanover Street
83 Hanover Street is a restaurant in Edinburgh, designed by Ja!Coco!. The table tops through both rooms are our timber terrazzo in Ivory Cedar & Walnut. The front room has a window seat onto Hanover Street, exposed brick, and a booth in the corner. The dining room behind it is long and narrow, with yellow banquettes down both walls, bentwood chairs, and globe lights set along grey plaster. Simple details like the cut corners on larger tables adds thoughtful design intent. The edge is left plain and the plywood shows beneath the cast top. Ivory Cedar & Walnut is a cream binder with rust-brown cedar and dark walnut chips.
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Kentish Town Kitchen
A Kentish Town kitchen with Bianco London Plane worktops, set against shaker cabinets in a strong blue. Our timber terrazzo holds its own next to that blue without competing with it. The London Plane chips for this project came from Kings Cross, just down the road from the project location. The worktops run in an L around two walls, with an upstand of the same material carried up behind them. Blue shaker fronts, brass knobs, delft tiles, and a white herringbone floor keep the room modern with a classic feel. Foresso was supplied as full sheets for the kitchen. The offcuts were kept back and used for the wall shelf, a small table, and the other details, so none of the material was wasted. The table top is two offcuts butted together, with the joint left visible and the plywood edge on show.
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London Kitchen
In this London kitchen, designed and built by Pluck London, our timber terrazzo runs along the worktop and carries up the wall behind it. The colourway is Ivory Cedar & Walnut, a cream binder with rust-brown cedar and dark walnut chips. The kitchen is a galley run on one wall, with a round dining table at the window. Pluck set the wood terrazzo against sage green fronts, plywood shelving, and a walnut floor. The splashback is the same material as the worktop, carried up the full height to the lower shelf rather than stopping at a slim upstand. The worktop edge is left on show. Foresso is a cast terrazzo top on a plywood substrate, so the edge shows ply lines rather than wood chips. That matches the exposed birch ply in Pluck's cabinetry and shelving. The same wood terrazzo lines the base of the open niche that holds the coffee machine.
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Northolme Bathroom
For this London bathroom, Lia Cramer Design used two Foresso colours. A custom burgundy runs across the floor and skirting, and the vanity shelf is finished in the paler Bianco London Plane. The burgundy is a bespoke binder, mixed to order with oak wood chips set into this deep red ground. Bianco London Plane is one of our standard colourways, with pale London plane chips in a light binder. The floor was laid using full sheets cut to suit and fixed through the face to ensure long term stability. Once fixed the screw heads were covered with a colour matched filler and joins filled with a RAL coloured silicone, giving flexibility and sealing to the floor. Every chip is reclaimed British wood, and the burgundy binder was hand mixed for this room alone.
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Belowground
Belowground is an art, design, and fashion concept space in Hong Kong where Bianco London Plane, our timber terrazzo, lines the fitting rooms. The walls, the reveals around the openings, and the cube benches are all faced in the same pale wood terrazzo. Each fitting room is a small room clad in Bianco London Plane from floor to ceiling, set over deep blue or yellow carpet. A Foresso-faced cube sits inside as a bench. Bianco London Plane sets rich wood chips in a pale binder. The wood chips are made from reclaimed British wood, all of it from London street trees taken down as part of city maintenance. On the shop floor the same terrazzo faces freestanding cube benches, set among the rails, plywood, and panels of coloured glass.
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Habiteum 75
A Parisian apartment where Bianco London Plane covers the walls rather than the worktop. It lines the kitchen recess and reappears through the flat on a column, a bench, and built-in furniture. In the kitchen the wood terrazzo wraps the whole recess, walls and soffit, so the green island and units sit inside a continuous speckled surround. Bianco London Plane sets rich wood chips in a light binder, which is what lets it cover large areas without crowding the strong colours around it, the green kitchen, the yellow ceiling, and the ochre curtains. The wood chips are made from reclaimed British wood, all of it from London street trees taken down as part of city maintenance. Away from the kitchen the same surface returns as features: a full-height column, the base of a window bench, and a console beside the sofa.
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Halvbroren Bistro
Halvbroren is a bistro in central Oslo, worked in deep reds, warm timber panelling, and oxblood leather. Its round dining tables are topped with Foresso Charcoal Walnut, our timber terrazzo, set as a dark centre inside a solid oak ring. Charcoal Walnut sets walnut chips in a deep, near-black binder, so the tops sit quietly under the room's low light rather than pulling against the red ceiling and painted murals. Each top is built as a round inset. The Foresso centre is framed by a solid oak ring, which gives the table a warm timber rim and tucks the plywood edge out of sight, so you read terrazzo and oak rather than the ply lines. It is a tidy way to use Foresso where a clean, finished edge matters. The timber in the surface is offcut and reclaimed British wood, so the tables keep the character of real timber in a top hard enough for daily restaurant use.
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The Conran Shop
The Conran Shop in Dongtan is finished almost entirely in white and pale grey, then puts its strongest note of colour on the checkout desk. The counter is faced in Foresso timber terrazzo, our recycled-timber surface, in a deep blue made to order for Conran. For Conran the binder is pigmented a bespoke blue, close to the brand's own, so the desk arrives as a single block of colour. The chips are London plane, one of the most common street trees in London, scattered through the blue as flecks of warm brown timber. A checkout desk is where a shop concentrates attention, so it takes the boldest material in the room. Against the white shelving and the pale terrazzo floor, the blue block reads as the fixed point you walk towards.
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Five St. Philips
Five St Philips is a restored classical stone building in Birmingham. Inside, its shared work floor runs on long communal tables topped with Foresso Chocolate Oak, our timber terrazzo in a dark, warm colourway. Chocolate Oak sets pale oak chips in a deep brown binder, so the tops read rich and warm against the tan leather chairs, green carpet, and timber planters. On tables this size, the busy chip pattern takes the marks of daily use, cups, laptops, and notebooks, more easily than a plain surface would. The tables are broken up by planted dividers, giving each person a settled spot to work. The timber in the tops is offcut and reclaimed British wood, which keeps the warmth of real timber in a surface tough enough for shared use. Each top is a cast layer of Foresso on plywood, and here the edge is left exposed, so the fine ply lines sit on show alongside the terrazzo rather than being hidden behind a strip.
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Midlands Art Centre
Foresso is made in Birmingham, so we are proud to see it in the café at MAC, the Midlands Arts Centre and one of the city's key cultural venues. Its KILN café uses our timber terrazzo as finished table tops, in three colourways set among plainer wood and laminate tables. The three are Azure Oak, Charcoal Walnut, and Bianco London Plane, a pale blue, a near-black, and a soft cream, each carrying the timber chips that give Foresso its name. Rather than fit out the whole floor in one surface, the café uses the terrazzo tops as accents, dotted through rows of simpler tables. The mix keeps the room varied without looking busy, and using Foresso only where it counts helped keep the fit-out to budget. We supplied the tops finished and ready to mount on the café's own bases. Each top is a cast layer of Foresso on a plywood base, so the edge shows the plywood's fine ply lines beneath the terrazzo surface. It is a simple, robust build for a café that stays busy all day.
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Vastint Riga
At Vastint's Riga office, one surface runs right through the floor. Foresso Ivory Cedar & Walnut, our timber terrazzo, appears on the bar, the walls, the furniture, and the joinery, used in a different way in each area. The colourway sets pale cedar and darker walnut chips in a cream binder, so the surface reads warm and busy up close and calm across a room. In the cafe-bar it clads the counter base and a structural column, giving the entrance a solid, chip-heavy base beneath the dark worktop. Elsewhere it works as a flat feature panel. Around the welcome screen it is set vertically into the timber-slatted wall, framed like a picture, with the aggregate carrying the detail rather than any applied pattern. It also tops the round lounge tables and fronts the low storage units. In the meeting rooms it returns as inserts in the shelving and joinery. Used this way, one low-carbon surface does the work of several finishes and keeps the whole fit-out consistent, from the entrance through to the quiet rooms.
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VitrA Showroom
VitrA's London showroom uses a curved welcome counter as the centre of the space, with coffee and tea at one end and product displays behind. The top is Bianco London Plane, our pale timber terrazzo made from London street trees. The counter is public-facing and in use all day, so it needed a surface that holds up to close attention and regular handling. Bianco London Plane pairs a pale binder with warm London plane wood chips, which keeps the counter bright while adding character against the white cabinets and polished concrete. In this project the Foresso is cast with a solid edge rather than cut from a sheet, so the timber chips run all the way down. That let the edge be cast to a bespoke rounded profile that follows the curve, showing the same aggregate as the top with no visible seam or join. On a counter people lean on, it gives a soft, solid edge.
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House Made by Many Hands
This home demonstrates how a Victorian house can be transformed with substantially reduced environmental impact. Minimising use of steel, concrete and internal linings achieved a Lifetime Carbon figure 40% lower than if it had been built conventionally. The design was driven by a strategy of working with what was there, the carbon content of necessary new materials, their buildability and cost. A spacious kitchen for the chef client is the renovation's heart, with new sightlines and increased daylight. Spaces are defined through considered placement of structural piers and changes in floor level. Glass doors connect the home office to a roof terrace. Timber structure was employed in place of conventional steelwork throughout, fully demountable at the end of life. The project is the UK's first building structure to specify limestone calcined clay cement (LC3) concrete, a product which has the capacity to reduce global CO2 emissions by 1-2% if adopted universally. Using this new technology did not distract from the responsibility of making a unique home for the client, one that they enjoy as "lighter, roomier, more functional and more beautiful, whilst remaining true to our values." NLA Don't Move Improve Awards 2024: Winner of the Environmental Leadership Prize. Hackney Design Awards 2024: Overall Winner and Commendation for Sustainability.
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Cabin 50
A thoughtful kitchen and bathroom making use of small spaces with rich tones and textures. The plywood edge of the Foresso worktop has been stained to match the plywood cabinetry.
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Kensal Rise Kitchen
This material first kitchen uses raw plaster walls paired with our Bianco London Plane timber terrazzo to create a textural space that comes alive in different light. Simple cabinetry and well-chosen hardware complete the kitchen. In the next door flat one extra sheet of Bianco London Plane is used to create a textural worktop and backsplash. By optimising the dimensions around the sheet size there is no waste from the sheet, ensuring a zero-waste install.
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Backstory Balham
Paired with vibrant colours our timber terrazzo countertop brings some earthy tones into the interior for this bookshop and cafe in South London. The rich tones of the Walnut and Cedar create a welcoming atmosphere. Sheet offcuts were used to make a backsplash, unifying the cafe area.
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Taigh na Coille House
Taigh na Coille - House of the Woods - is a new sustainable two-bedroom cabin on Sutherland's wild Atlantic coastline. A core ambition of the project was to create a building that has minimal impact on the environment, achieves Passive House levels of insulation and uses low-carbon materials. Our Charcoal Walnut was chosen for the kitchen to create a link between the material language of the house and the everyday kitchen space. A core ambition of the project was to minimise the local and global environmental impacts of the building by adopting a rigorous approach to sustainability that is holistic, defined, measurable and robust. The design targeted the most stringent standards of the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge, which will be tested now that the building is in use.
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88 Wood Street
At this iconic office in the heart of London we made statement reception desks, breakout space furniture, and an expansive 10 metre long conference table. By repurposing timber offcuts from the project we created a bespoke circular solution that contributed to lowering the carbon footprint of this refit. We worked closely with the main contractor and site joiners to ensure a seamless installation of the custom designs that bring warm to the public facing spaces of the building. In modern offices material choice is increasingly important for employee welfare, indoor air quality, and reducing the carbon footprint of the project.
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Jury's Inn Hotel
Countertops and reception desks for this hotel in our home city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. For this refurb the client opted for a new material language with a focus on natural surfaces and welcoming warmth. Mitre joined edges create the impression of a solid slab, a practical option for projects that don't want to show the plywood substrate. Incorporating our materials into concierge and guest tables helped tie the spaces together into a unified visual language. In the hotel bar Bianco London Plane was used to make shelving, continuing the welcoming feeling throughout the public spaces.
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DESG Co-Working
At this co-working space in Cardiff our Ivory Cedar & Walnut Foresso was used extensively for desks and decorative joinery elements. The design focussed on bringing natural elements and welcoming tones into the space to make it a productive but comfortable place to work. In private working booths our tables are combined with Oak faced acoustic panelling and mustard colour upholstery. It's become increasingly important for modern workspaces to embrace natural materials for the benefit of staff, as well as to showcase your organisation's values.
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Carhartt WIP
Carharrt WIP store in Antwerp used a variety of our products to create bespoke display units, storage, and a feature cash desk. Our timber terrazzo is used to soften the industrial aesthetic and create eye-catching displays to guide the customer experience. Matching Foresso with veneered plywood creates a varied but consistent visual language throughout the store.
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