Summit Elm Sideboard

Solid elm with relief-carved basketweave geometry across four doors, whitewashed grain, slender splayed legs at 210cm — the Summit is the sideboard that earns a second and a third look.

The carved door fronts on the Summit are not a decorative motif applied to a surface — they are the surface itself, deeply carved into the solid elm in a basketweave parquet pattern of alternating horizontal and vertical rectangular blocks that creates a three-dimensional relief across the full 210cm front. In the close-up the carving is extraordinary — each block sitting in precise relationship to its neighbours, the whitewashed elm grain reading clearly across both the raised and recessed planes, the whole composition shifting visually as the light moves across it. At 86kg in solid elm this is a piece with the weight and authority to justify being the most important piece of furniture in a dining room.

What sets it apart

The detail that makes it different

The alternating block direction of the carving is the specific quality that makes the Summit's surface so visually complex and rewarding — each rectangular block is carved with the grain running perpendicular to its neighbours, meaning that across the surface of every door the light reflects differently from each block and the whole panel appears to shift and move in a way that flat-carved or single-direction relief cannot achieve. The whitewash finish on the elm is precisely right for this level of carving detail — the pale tone lightens the recesses slightly less than the raised surfaces, creating a subtle tonal contrast that makes the three-dimensional geometry of the carving immediately legible. The slender splayed legs give the 86kg sideboard a surprisingly light base profile.