H Miller Bros | RETAILER PROFILE
LEFT: Cabinet made from birch ply and iroko BELOW: Hugh Miller at work RIGHT and BOTTOM: Details of its Furnituremaker’s Kitchen – see more on page 50
by craftsmen, without CNC machines. Carcasses are usually birch ply but they have also used bamboo, or MDF if a client wants a block colour. Other than that, it is all handcrafted hardwood for the rest of the kitchen. Every kitchen they make is a completely bespoke one-off creation. Nothing is standard or off-the-shelf. And in many instances, Hugh will create one-off pieces of furniture to complement a design. And Hugh’s decade-plus experience as a furniture maker and self-taught woodworking skills honed over the best part of five years guarantee something out of the ordinary.
Understanding wood As Hugh explains: “I have an under- standing of wood that is much more empirical and experience-based and not based on received wisdom. In certain instances, it has meant that we have been able to use wood in ways that
other people possibly haven’t
thought of before. In some of our kitchens, especially the latest one called the Furnituremaker’s Kitchen, there’s a lot of details in that that are almost a bit bonkers for a kitchen, but we are really excited about it because it
is almost like a new dawn in our design work and kitchens in general.” And how do clients react to that? Howard said: “It is not something that we hugely worry about. We’re not looking to do 100 kitchens a year. We’re looking to do a dozen
really, really
Miller Bros? Howard explains that leads tend to come from publicity through newspapers, lifestyle magazines and online articles. And he adds: “I am an architect and Hugh trained as an architect and when we were studying with architects, it’s like a fraternity, and [many of them] come to us with projects.”
Hugh tells me they have done
projects in London, Edinburgh, North- umberland, the Home Counties and are working on one in Brighton. So how exactly do an architect and furniture maker/woodworker unite to create kitchens?
Howard explains how they approach a project: “For Hugh it’s a really big piece of furniture and for me it’s a really small piece of architecture, like a small building. It’s kind of where our two fields overlap and in wanting to work together, it’s kind of a natural fit. But we can turn our hands to other things. We love doing kitchens, but we have done other bits of internal architectural cabinetry and standalone furniture, and we enjoy doing that too, so we don’t
turn any of
good ones and, to be honest, when clients approach us, we’re as much interviewing them as they are interviewing us. We want to know that it’s going to be a really interesting, exciting project we are going to add value to, so if somebody wants a standard kitchen, they’re not going to come to us, and if they do come to us, we’re not going to want to do it.” But the Liverpool workshop is just that – an artisan workshop, not a showroom. So how do people find H
December 2020 ·
We have been able to use wood in ways that other people possibly haven’t thought of before
Hugh Miller, partner that down.”
Hugh says: “We want to create, and this
is where it
might start to sound pretentious, what the Germans call Gesamtkraft - werk, which means
total work of art. What we mean by that is that we want to create projects where we don’t just do the kitchen and the furniture and the building and architecture, but we also do the landscape, all of the internal finishes, and maybe also some of the art.” He adds: “We are both interested in different parts of the design but they
complement each other perfectly – it’s that thing about scale, Howard being a macro-conceptual designer and me being a crafted details designer. Neither of us has a veto over the other when it comes to design. The thing that is strong about our partnership is that the design part of it is absolutely collaborative.” Although Howard admits that “we do have some very frank conversations”.
Full service With such a bespoke product, it is not surprising
that the in-house
team
handles all of the installations, although as things start to get busier Howard says they have been talking to an outside company with experienced fitters to see if they can help. H Miller Bros has also joined up to a scheme called Made Smarter. Howard explains what that entails:
“It’s a pilot scheme for manufacturing businesses in the North-West,” he says. “And the idea is to try to boost productivity through digital technology. They do an audit of your business and then advise you, producing what they call a digital roadmap to tell you what you could use to be more productive and how to implement them. There is a bit of match-funding in there. “It also ties into a few other pro - grammes, including one that aims to try to help businesses in the same region become more eco-friendly. One thing we are looking at is ‘lean manufacturing’ – a concept started by Honda – it identifies seven different ways of creating waste and you go through these areas and try to make small gains, so that everything you do is adding value to the product you give to the customer.”
But what about appliances – do „ 49
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
