Projects · Hotels & hospitality
A reception desk for Chewton Glen
A second commission for the five-star New Forest hotel: the main reception desk of the house, where every guest checks in.
Two years after we fitted out The Kitchen, Chewton Glen came back to the workshop for the piece every guest meets first: a new reception desk for the main entrance hall of the hotel itself, where guests check in to their rooms.
It is a separate commission from the restaurant, and a different kind of joinery. Where The Kitchen is oak, copper and leather booths for a busy room, the hotel wanted a desk in the Georgian manner — dark mahogany, raised-and-fielded panels edged with inlaid stringing, corner pilasters with an inlaid motif, a moulded top and plinth, and brass ring pulls — that would look as though it had always stood in the hall, against the panelling and the tall windows.
It is a substantial piece, set out as an L with a return so the reception has two working positions. The guest side of the top is inset with three panels of leather. Behind the panelled front it is fitted furniture: a lower staff counter with drawers and cupboards, and the cabling of a working five-star reception planned in so nothing shows.
The desk was drawn, made and polished in Poole as one piece of furniture, then delivered and installed in the hall in 2019. These are our own photographs, taken as it went in.
Made to look as though it had always been there
The brief was a desk in the Georgian manner — dark mahogany, raised-and-fielded panels edged with inlaid stringing, a moulded top and plinth, and a run of drawers with brass ring pulls under the top rail — to sit against the panelling and tall windows of the hall as if it had been there since the house was built.
The front
Three leather writing tops
The top is inset with three panels of leather, one at each station, so a guest signs in on leather rather than polish. The desk is set out as an L with a return, which gives the reception two working positions without the piece reading as a counter.
The top · inset leather
The working side
Behind the panelled front the desk is a piece of fitted furniture: a lower staff counter with drawers and cupboards, and the cabling for a working five-star reception planned in from the start, so nothing shows from the guest side.
The staff side
Details
The reception desk
Related work
By appointment
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