Osmo adds the finishing touch to Britain’s Best Woodworker’s artistic kitchen island
Bespoke furniture maker Charlie West is perhaps best known for being a contestant on reality TV show Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker, where she made it through to the final episode. Nowadays, she spends most of her time in her workshop making stunning furniture and art, including tables, drinks cabinets and wall hangings. Her pieces focus on demonstrating the different compositions of wood, highlighting the natural beauty within to create the final aesthetic without too much human interference.
“The cabinets are made from steamed beech and the panels are spalted beech. The client wanted an artistic, creative island to entertain guests around and to also house their recycling bins. I love Osmo, they’re great products! The TopOil always brings out the grain of the wood. It’s such a great product and gives fantastic results.”
Charlie, Bespoke Maker.
As spalted beech offers such an eye-catching aesthetic, Charlie’s aim was for a finish that highlighted this beauty, whilst also protecting the end grain top from stains and ensuring it could cope with typical kitchen uses. To achieve this she turned to Osmo, initially experimenting with Polyx-Oil before switching to TopOil to achieve the desired results.
Charlie began by sanding the island down to P240. She then applied two coats of Osmo TopOil, each of which took around 40 minutes to apply and which she left for a full night to cure.
As well as being hardwearing and durable, the food safe status of Osmo TopOil was also an important consideration for Charlie, as was its ability to repel water and the fact that it delivers a microporous, breathable finish which doesn’t crack, peel or flake.
The result is a stunning kitchen island that truly shows off the spalting to full effect, while providing much needed storage and a safe finish for kitchen entertaining.