oliver-deadman-head-of-design — In celebration of Clive Christian Furniture's first ever contemporary kitchen and new cabinetry design in almost a decade, we sit down with Head of Design Oliver Deadman to uncover more about this monumental style turn.

The idea: For quite some time, we have seen this growing trend in the market for contemporary kitchens. This trend continued to progress and grow, and over time we realised it wasn't just a trend; it was a movement within kitchen design. We knew we wanted to create something new that would appeal to this new contemporary lifestyle audience. Still, at the same time, we didn't want to produce something mediocre or similar to anything else on the market - it had to feel right for us as a company.

The refined brief: This was simple; the brief was to make something as paired back as possible on surface value, but at the same time be more interesting, more considered and more refined than anything we've ever made before - that was the foreground statement of OPUS.

What is OPUS: Maintaining the principles of classical architecture - elegance, balance, symmetry and strict proportions, OPUS is the new classical kitchen for Clive Christian Furniture. It’s a contemporary kitchen that features sleek, straight lines that nod to modern and contemporary, juxtaposed with new materials, textures and finishes.

Within OPUS, we've designed a series that celebrates the design principles of fusing and redefining contemporary and classical and really demonstrates the design skills and process of us as a brand.

contemporary-kitchen-detailing — “From the moment we started discussing a contemporary kitchen of our own, we knew the essential decorative components of a Clive Christian Contemporary Kitchen would be what sets OPUS apart from the rest of the market.”

Designing OPUS: A vital part of designing the OPUS delivery was defining the core components of a contemporary lifestyle kitchen and figuring out how we fit the Clive Christian Furniture heritage into this. We stepped away from the traditional details we were used to, such as columns, pilasters and carved details and kept the fundamental element of a Clive Christian Kitchen: scalable grandeur. Whether your home is a fantastic listed city apartment with historic ceiling heights and walls you can't really touch, or a grand Surrey mansion with 5-metre ceiling heights and an extreme amount of space, our kitchens must always be scalable while expressing true opulence in every home.

The Frame: We are excited to launch a brand new building format for contemporary kitchens with a modular frame. This brings the added bonus that we can create these large expanses of furniture which are boundless in the actual structure and then finished with rich details - and this is synonymous with us as a company.

So we stripped back the engineering side of it and focused on the best part, which is the materiality and bringing lifestyle characteristics to it.

The key decorative elements: From the moment we started discussing a contemporary kitchen of our own, we knew the essential decorative components would be what sets OPUS apart from the rest of the market. As with all Clive Christian Furniture kitchens, we ensured the structural elements would stand the test of time and last for generations. Then we focused on the materiality and designed two new state-of-the-art finishes that genuinely transform the product into living, breathing art - and that's when OPUS became really exciting.

luxury-contemporary-kitchen — “OPUS allowed us to look at, experiment with and discuss a design language we've never spoken before, and that's really exciting. The team and I always say that OPUS doesn't look like a Clive Christian Furniture project - it's completely new and unexpected, and that's what makes me feel immensely proud.”

The colour palettes: We have created two colour palette options for this new collection, warm and cool - each one has been specially developed to complement the central tone with a highlight and shadow contrast shade. With the warm palette, we have a central tone of Warm Gold offering a classic opulent colour, that’s timeless. This is then enhanced with Elderflower, a contemporary pale timber finish and Espresso, a rich, dark timber.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have a cool palette. The central tone is Dove, which offers a beautifully organic take on contemporary grey. This is then highlighted by shade Stone, while Cinder adds a smokey shadow to the palette.

For each of these, we have two very exciting specialist finishes which are an available upgrade also exclusive to OPUS.

The Effervesce: This finish features carved dimple detailing and warm tones that shimmer in a warm gold finish, fooling the eye and creating a highly tactile surface, which must be touched to be understood. The styling and design of Effervesce was developed to reflect the theatre of enjoying a glass of champagne, capturing the vigour and excitement of the rising bubbles.

The Ethereal: Drawing inspiration from the raw material, with its natural textures, movement and grain, the Ethereal finish is inspired by the natural formation of bark found on the American Ashtree. It was created to illustrate how the cool palette of finishes harmoniously combines into a central piece of art. The design features organic three-dimensional ripples that span the vast heights, creating a unique silvered pattern. In the centre of the design are carved ripples flanked by chevrons of rift cut veneer and inlaid steel pinstripe - the design is extremely unique as it grows, following the scale and proportions specific to your kitchen.

Personalisation: OPUS brings a whole new level of personalisation to our clients, which is my favourite thing about the design. We no longer have the boundary of a door because it's designed to be a complete piece of furniture, allowing us to elaborate on every single detail and ultimately making it perfect for the client.

The unexpected: OPUS allowed us to look at, experiment with and discuss a design language we've never spoken before, and that's really exciting. The team and I always say that OPUS doesn't look like a Clive Christian Furniture project - it's completely new and unexpected, and that's what makes me feel immensely proud.