Surface appeal
We wanted to revamp our kitchen . New surfaces , new worktops , new doors . We wanted something stylish , individual , sustainable and didn ’ t cost a fortune , something a little more “ us ” than going into a kitchen store and buying something off the shelf . How hard could that be ?
Actually , we tried that , went to the usual places and saw the usual stuff . Things with names like Nordic Noir and made of granite or Corian . Nice enough , but a bit uninspiring . It started to become a little bit of an obsession . Eventually , we decided on a radical , if familiar , course of action . “ Let ’ s go for a drink and something to eat ”.
We went to Fumi , the new Japanese in Circus Street . The food ’ s great there and it ’ s been designed beautifully , a very stylish clean aesthetic . Sitting there , we couldn ’ t help notice the furniture . The tables looked like marble , but clearly weren ’ t .
“ We had them made for us . They ’ re really interesting , they ’ re made from used coffee ”. What ? Two days later I was talking to Jani Lemut in , obviously , a coffee shop .
“ It was just an obvious thing to do . I was working with an interior design company who were importing all their furniture from India , but wanted to be more local and sustainable and so on , so they contacted me . We started talking about new designs and what we can do and what different materials to use , local materials . I started thinking ‘ What else can I use ?’ And coffee was very obvious , because it was just on the table . It was just there ”. How many cups of coffee get thrown away ? “ Probably a lot ”, said Jani . “ I heard a statistic , I don ’ t know whether it ’ s right or not , but the average person in UK spends £ 25 pounds a year on coffee . In Brighton , it ’ s £ 75 ”.
Apparently there are more coffee shops here per head than anywhere else in the UK . And in Seven Dials ...
“ Yes . Most probably . Yeah , and it ’ s still gaining popularity . It ’ s quite incredible ”.
Jani is a “ classically trained furniture maker ” from Slovenia who came here after the war in Yugoslavia started in 1990 . “ I made wooden children ’ s toys and we had quite a nice steady business , but then after three or four months , the war started and that was it . Lost everything . The country came to a standstill and basically that ’ s what brought me here . “ I came to see a friend of mine in Gloucestershire and I just loved it . Absolutely loved it . I love the freedom of expression here . When I got to London , I just loved it so much .
I said to my friends , ‘ Look you go back . I ’ m staying here ’. And that was pretty much it .”
He moved to St Ives and “ had a really good time , doing mainly designing and building furniture , cottages . I was doing lots of artwork as well , art exhibitions and so on . Everything was always based in recycled materials . I was always fascinated by what gets thrown away . What can one do with the challenge ? I still feel excited by the idea we can turn objects into a different life . So that ’ s my main motivation ”.
Had you seen coffee used before ? “ People have tried using coffee in all sorts of products , but only as an additive . People have tried make composites are made of coffee and thermoplastics …” At this point Jani started talking about binding processes and chemistry . I ordered another coffee and waited for him to start speaking English again . How long did it take you to work all this out ? “ Two years ”. And you kept going with it ? Because you were certain that it would work ?
“ Well , I wasn ’ t certain certain , but there was a promising sign . The problem with it was stabilising the coffee because it ’ s organic it moves , it does all the the things that any organic stuff does . So to bind it in organic way , it ’ s quite difficult , but this is exactly what we were trying to do , to make a plastic free component ”. And you have now ? “ Yes , we have . Yes .” The results are really lovely , but it doesn ’ t only look lovely , it looks real . Organic .
“ Of course , because all the ingredients that we use are purely by-products of different materials . marble dust , copper , dust , metal . Then you ’ ve got spices , natural pigments and so on and so forth , all sorts of stuff like charcoal ”. You could make something beetroot colour ? “ Yeah , we do that ”.
Could you make something that blue ? “ Yes . Turquoise oxidize copper dust , a very intense turquoise ”.
There are other uses for the materials but “ I ’ m a bit wary of mixing too much either plastic or any chemicals with our product , because then it ’ s difficult to recycle further . So wherever we create , we try to create in such a way that is easy to dispose of or reuse later on . This is the main point of doing this . At the moment , our product , if you leave it out in a field for a couple of years , it will just disintegrate and it will go back to where it came from . That ’ s pretty much it ”.
Everything here is about sustainability . On their website ( below ) they say “ We are carbon neutral . We plant a tree for every sale we make . Our materials are sourced locally and much of it from waste ”. They are “ a circular business . Everything gets recycled , everything gets re-used ”.
We had the worktops done , the kitchen island and the dining table , and went for a copper sheen finish that looks great and always gets comments . It ’ s hardwearing , waterproof , almost completely heatproof and can be made to any size or shape . It also cost about a third of what we were quoted in the high street .
“ Why make something that will be extortionate ? Why make something nobody can afford ? If you can make something that ’ s beautiful and accessible and sustainable , then what ’ s not to like ?”
https :// tomasandjani . co . uk / 07930 944906 info @ tomasandjani . co . uk