Ian's Scottish Burr Elm Dining Table

Location:

Northamptonshire

For Homes

Client

Ian

Size

2.5 m x 1.2 m

To seat

8-10 people

Build Time

8 weeks

Wood

Scottish Burr Elm

Investment

£12,490

The clients challenge

Ian wanted a dining table that did more than seat people. It needed to be a proper talking point, something guests would clock the moment they walked into the kitchen and ask about before they'd even sat down. He'd seen river tables before and was drawn to the drama of them, the sculptural quality. But he wanted something with depth and tone to it, not just a showpiece. It had to fit the kitchen, anchor the room and hold its own every single day.

Where we started and what we did

Ian came in knowing roughly what he wanted, a river table with real character, burr grain, expressive live edges. We introduced him to Scottish Burr Elm, a timber that doesn't do subtle. The figuring is intricate, the variation organic, and the colour moves from warm ambers right through to deeper shadowed tones depending on how the light hits it.

We sent finished samples so Ian could see exactly what he was working with before any decisions were made. The chosen slab had everything, drama, refinement, the kind of grain pattern that makes a piece feel one of a kind. We built it out as a full river table, paired with a steel base that kept the silhouette clean and let the timber do the talking.

Every stage was handled in our Northamptonshire workshop, hand-milled and finished to the standard we hold every commission to.

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The final outcome

Ian got exactly what he came for, a centrepiece that earns the attention it gets. The Scottish Burr Elm draws people in, the resin river gives it movement, and the steel base keeps it grounded in the space around it. It seats the whole family, fits the kitchen it was built for, and looks like nothing else on the market because it isn't.