Homes and Gardens

The furniture designer Russell Pinch trained at Ravensbourne College of Design before working as Sir Terence Conran's design assistant and then senior designer with the Conran Design Group, where he developed a diverse range of products for The Conran Shop and Conran restaurants. He founded his own design company, Pinch, in 2004, for furniture, product and interior design.

His award-winning piece of furniture, the Alba Armoire, is made for Pinch by an old established British firm of woodworkers. “I am passionate about keeping our wonderful cabinetmaking skills alive in the UK,” Russell says. Each piece is followed through the workshop by one craftsman, then stamped with a maker's mark, numbered and signed. Using a small range of standard components means that the armoire can be fitted inside with shelves, drawers, rails and even wineracks to store almost everything in the house: kitchen pans and provisions; clothes and shoes; TV, DVD or hi-fi; or traditional linens. The interiors can also be adapted for bespoke requests, “no matter how left field”.

The Alba Armoire has double doors (shown), and is also available in a “skinny” one-door version. With its asymmetric assembly of raised panels that resemble moulded plaster, it is technically complex to make: machined MDF panels are glued to a board and then coated with a hard-wearing matt lacquer. This can be in any colour, but the best seller is white. All the wood and MDF used is FSC-certified and therefore sustainably sourced. To cut down on packaging waste, pieces are delivered “blanket-wrapped”.