Case Study: Hand-carved Gothic bathroom


Award-winning designer Bill Bradley at Ecoism personally approached us to work on a high-end residential project. Ecoism is well known in the national press for providing joinery of the highest standard, and our woodcarving needed to reflect that. With this particular project the requirement was to hand-carve crested moulding, panels, and flat-backed finials for a modern Gothic-style bathroom. We were able to provide a selection of progressive samples in the Gothic style to Ecoism immediately. We then made recommendations, provided examples of Gothic projects we had worked on in the past, and demonstrated our own design of a hand-carved Gothic room.

Because Bill was keen to ensure the pieces were carved correctly for the period, he entrusted us with the finer design details. We suggested placing a rose in the corners of the crested moulding, as well as traditional methods to protect the cresting from breaking. We also recommended that the tracery be applied onto Ecoism’s panels rather than carved into them. This significantly reduced the lead time as we were able to carve the ornaments while Ecoism produced the panels. Applied carvings can also reduce the cost because it’s a lot less labor on our end.

This project was to be painted, so the woodcarvings were produced in our own paint-grade timber. We completed a single panel first that Ecoism could approve before we continued with the remaining panels. Our dedicated Account Manager provided photographs of the woodcarvings throughout the whole process. Agrell Architectural Carving delivered this project within six weeks.

Once again were were happy to provide quality, delivery, and customer service to another important client.

“We love it! Everything is perfect! And a great reaction from the design team.” — Bill Bradley, Ecoism

(Bill Bradley’s own eco house build was featured on Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs TV show and Naomi Clever’s example of an energy saving home).